JP6883766B2 - Driving support method and driving support device, driving control device, vehicle, driving support program using it - Google Patents

Description

The present invention relates to a vehicle, a driving support method provided in the vehicle, a driving support device using the same, a driving control device, and a driving support program.

In recent years, the driver manually performs the driving operation based on the surrounding conditions of the vehicle and the running condition of the vehicle (for example, the speed of the own vehicle, steering, accelerator, brake, direction indicator, control information of the actuator, etc.). Various technologies have been proposed and put into practical use for vehicles capable of driving by driving and automatic driving in which some or all driving operations are automatically performed, and vehicles capable of fully automatic driving.

For example, Patent Document 1 discloses a traveling control device that allows a driver to visually recognize the operating state of automatic steering control or automatic acceleration / deceleration control when the own vehicle is subject to automatic steering control or automatic acceleration / deceleration control. There is.

Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2005-67483

However, during automatic driving (including both fully automatic driving and partially automatic driving), the relationship of trust between the car and the driver is extremely important because the driving is entrusted to the car, and the vehicle and the driver (occupants). ), It is necessary to convey appropriate information. Patent Document 1 notifies the driver of only the current operating state.

During automatic driving, only the current behavior (operating state) of the vehicle is notified, and the behavior to be implemented from now on (for example, before merging, before entering an intersection, when an emergency vehicle is nearby, or something else around the vehicle) The first is that the driver will be very anxious if he is not informed of any lane change, acceleration, deceleration, or other behavior that the vehicle is trying to implement when it is / is likely to operate. There was a challenge.

Also, during fully automated driving, there is a high possibility that the driver is taking actions other than driving monitoring, and even if only the current operating state is suddenly displayed, the current surroundings of the vehicle and the running state of the vehicle are displayed. There is a second problem that the driver cannot give instructions to the vehicle smoothly because he / she cannot immediately respond to the intention of the driver to instruct the driving.

Further, there is a third problem that even if the driver tries to manually drive the vehicle directly by only notifying the driver of the current operating state, the vehicle cannot be switched immediately.

In addition, even if the vehicle takes the same action depending on the driver or occupant, the timing and amount of operation differ from person to person, and there is a high possibility that the driver or occupant will deviate from the feeling of manual driving. There is a fourth problem that unnecessary operation intervention by the driver may be induced during automatic driving.

The present invention is a driving support method capable of solving at least one of the above problems during fully automatic driving or partially automatic driving, and a driving support device, an automatic driving control device, a vehicle, and a program using the same. Regarding.

In order to solve the above problems, the driving support device of a certain aspect of the present invention acquires behavior information indicating the first action to be executed by the vehicle from the automatic driving control unit that determines the behavior of the vehicle in the automatic driving of the vehicle. A second action that can be executed separately from the action information input unit, the detection information input unit that acquires the detection information indicating the detection result from the detection unit that detects the surrounding condition and the running state of the vehicle, and the first action indicated by the action information. A candidate determination unit that determines an action based on detection information, an image generation unit that generates a first image representing the first action indicated by the action information, and a second image representing the second action, and a vehicle driver. It is provided with an image output unit that outputs the first image and the second image to the display unit in the vehicle so as to display the first image and the second image within the constant field of view of the vehicle.

Another aspect of the present invention is an operation control device. This device includes an automatic driving control unit that determines the behavior of the vehicle in the automatic driving of the vehicle, a detection information input unit that acquires detection information indicating the detection result from the detection unit that detects the surrounding condition and the running state of the vehicle. A candidate determination unit that determines a second action that is different from the first action that the automatic driving control unit causes the vehicle to execute based on the detection information, and a first action that represents the first action. An image generator that generates one image and generates a second image that represents the second action, and a first image and a second image so as to display the first image and the second image within a fixed field of view of the driver of the vehicle. Is provided with an image output unit that outputs the above to a display unit in the vehicle.

Yet another aspect of the present invention is a vehicle. This vehicle is a detection information input that acquires detection information indicating a detection result from an automatic driving control unit that determines the behavior of the vehicle in the automatic driving of the vehicle and a detection unit that detects the surrounding condition and the running state of the vehicle. The candidate determination unit, which is different from the first action that the automatic driving control unit causes the vehicle to execute, and determines the second action that can be executed by the vehicle based on the detection information. An image generation unit that generates a first image representing one action and a second image representing a second action, and a second image so as to display the first image and the second image within a certain field of view of the driver of the vehicle. It includes an image output unit that outputs one image and a second image to a display unit in the vehicle.

Yet another aspect of the present invention is a driving assistance method. In this method, a step of acquiring behavior information indicating the first action to be executed by the vehicle from an automatic driving control unit that determines the behavior of the vehicle in the automatic driving of the vehicle, and a detection unit that detects the surrounding condition and the running state of the vehicle. From, the step of acquiring the detection information indicating the detection result and the step of determining the second action which is different from the first action indicated by the action information and can be executed by the vehicle based on the detection information. , A step of generating a first image representing the first action indicated by the action information and generating a second image representing the second action, and displaying the first image and the second image within a certain field of view of the driver of the vehicle. The computer executes the steps of outputting the first image and the second image to the display unit in the vehicle.

It should be noted that any combination of the above components, the expression of the present invention converted between a device, a system, a method, a program, a recording medium on which the program is recorded, a vehicle equipped with the device, and the like are also used in the present invention. It is effective as an aspect.

According to the present invention, in fully automatic driving or partially automatic driving, information can be appropriately transmitted so that comfortable automatic driving in which the operations of the vehicle and the driver are less likely to conflict with each other.

It is a block diagram which shows the main part structure of the vehicle which includes the information notification device which concerns on Embodiment 1 of this invention. It is a figure explaining the 1st example of the driving environment, the display of the notification part with respect to it, and the operation of the operation part. It is a figure which shows another example of the display in a notification part. It is a flowchart which shows the processing procedure of the information notification processing in this embodiment. It is a figure which shows the 1st example of a driving environment, and the display control for it. It is a figure which shows the 1st example of a driving environment, and another display control for it. It is a figure which shows the 2nd example of a driving environment, and the display control for it. It is a figure which shows the 3rd example of a driving environment, and the display control for it. It is a figure which shows the 4th example of a driving environment, and the display control for it. It is a figure which shows the 5th example of a driving environment, and the display control for it. It is a figure which shows another display control with respect to the 1st example of the driving environment shown in FIG. It is a figure which shows another display control with respect to the 2nd example of the driving environment shown in FIG. 7. It is a block diagram which shows the main part structure of the vehicle which includes the information notification device which concerns on Embodiment 2 of this invention. It is a figure explaining the display of the touch panel in Embodiment 2. FIG. It is a figure explaining the display of the notification part in Embodiment 3 of this invention. It is a figure which shows an example of a running history. It is a figure which shows the construction method of the clustering type driver model. It is a figure which shows an example of the constructed clustering type driver model. It is a figure which shows another example of the constructed clustering type driver model. It is a figure which shows the construction method of the individually adaptive type driver model. It is a figure which shows an example of the constructed individually adaptive driver model. It is a figure which shows an example of the driving characteristic model. It is a figure explaining the display of the notification part in Embodiment 4 of this invention. It is a figure explaining the display of the notification part in Embodiment 4 of this invention. It is a figure explaining the display of the notification part in Embodiment 4 of this invention. It is a figure explaining the display of the notification part in Embodiment 4 of this invention. It is a figure which shows an example of a running history. It is a figure which shows the usage of the driver model in this modification. It is a block diagram which shows an example of the arrangement of the cache in this modification. It is a figure which shows an example of the cache creation method in this modification. It is a figure which shows an example of the cache creation method in this modification. It is a block diagram which shows the structure of a vehicle. It is a figure which shows typically the interior of the vehicle of FIG. 32. It is a block diagram which shows the detailed structure of the detection part of FIG. 32. It is a figure which shows the action information input from an automatic driving control device. It is a block diagram which shows the detailed structure of the control part of a driving support device. It is a figure which shows an example of the automatic driving information screen. It is a figure which shows an example of the automatic driving information screen. It is a figure which shows an example of the automatic driving information screen. It is a sequence diagram which shows the example of the process which concerns on the HMI control of a vehicle. It is a flowchart which shows the example of the processing of a driving support device. It is a block diagram which shows the detailed structure of the storage part of a driving support device. It is a figure which shows typically the statistical information which is stored in the statistical information storage part. It is a block diagram which shows the detailed structure of the control part of a driving support device. It is a figure which shows an example of the automatic driving information screen. It is a sequence diagram which shows the example of the process which concerns on the HMI control of a vehicle. It is a flowchart which shows the example of the processing of a driving support device. It is a flowchart which shows the example of the processing of a driving support device. It is a figure which shows an example of the automatic driving information screen. It is a figure which shows an example of the automatic driving information screen. It is a figure which shows an example of the automatic driving information screen. It is a figure which shows an example of the automatic driving information screen. It is a flowchart which shows the example of the processing of a driving support device. It is a flowchart which shows the example of the processing of a driving support device. It is a figure which shows an example of the automatic driving information screen. It is a figure which shows an example of the automatic driving information screen. It is a figure which shows an example of the automatic driving information screen. It is a flowchart which shows the example of the processing of a driving support device. It is a figure which shows an example of the automatic driving information screen. It is a flowchart which shows the example of the processing of a driving support device. It is a block diagram which shows the detailed structure of the storage part of a driving support device. It is a block diagram which shows the detailed structure of the control part of a driving support device. It is a figure which shows an example of the automatic driving information screen. It is a sequence diagram which shows the example of the process which concerns on the HMI control of a vehicle. It is a flowchart which shows the example of the processing of a driving support device. It is a figure which shows an example of the automatic driving information screen. It is a flowchart which shows the example of the processing of a driving support device.

Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings. It should be noted that each embodiment described below is an example, and the present invention is not limited to these embodiments.

(Embodiment 1)
FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a main configuration of a vehicle 1 including an information notification device according to a first embodiment of the present invention. The vehicle 1 is a vehicle that can automatically perform all or part of driving control without the need for driver's operation.

The vehicle 1 includes a brake pedal 2, an accelerator pedal 3, a winker lever 4, a steering wheel 5, a detection unit 6, a vehicle control unit 7, a storage unit 8, and an information notification device 9.

The brake pedal 2 receives a brake operation by the driver and decelerates the vehicle 1. Further, the brake pedal 2 may receive the control result by the vehicle control unit 7 and change the amount corresponding to the degree of deceleration of the vehicle 1. The accelerator pedal 3 receives an accelerator operation by the driver and accelerates the vehicle 1. Further, the accelerator pedal 3 may receive the control result by the vehicle control unit 7 and change the amount corresponding to the degree of acceleration of the vehicle 1. The winker lever 4 receives a lever operation by the driver and lights a direction indicator (not shown) of the vehicle 1. Further, the winker lever 4 may receive the control result by the vehicle control unit 7, change the winker lever 4 to a state corresponding to the direction indicating direction of the vehicle 1, and light the direction indicator (not shown) of the vehicle 1.

The steering wheel 5 receives a steering operation by the driver and changes the traveling direction of the vehicle 1. Further, the steering wheel 5 may receive the control result by the vehicle control unit 7 and change the amount corresponding to the change in the traveling direction of the vehicle 1. The steering wheel 5 has an operation unit 51.

The operation unit 51 is provided on the front surface of the steering wheel 5 (the surface facing the driver) and receives an input operation from the driver. The operation unit 51 is, for example, a device such as a button, a touch panel, or a grip sensor. The operation unit 51 outputs the information of the input operation received from the driver to the vehicle control unit 7.

The detection unit 6 detects the traveling state of the vehicle 1 and the surrounding conditions of the vehicle 1. Then, the detection unit 6 outputs the detected running state and information on the surrounding conditions to the vehicle control unit 7.

The detection unit 6 includes a position information acquisition unit 61, a sensor 62, a speed information acquisition unit 63, and a map information acquisition unit 64.

The position information acquisition unit 61 acquires the position information of the vehicle 1 as traveling state information by GPS (Global Positioning System) positioning or the like.

The sensor 62 is based on the position and lane position information of another vehicle existing around the vehicle 1, the position of the other vehicle and the type of whether or not the vehicle is ahead, the speed of the other vehicle and the speed of the own vehicle, and the collision prediction time (TTC: Time). To Collision), the situation around the vehicle 1, such as obstacles existing around the vehicle 1, is detected.

The speed information acquisition unit 63 acquires information such as the speed or the traveling direction of the vehicle 1 from a speed sensor or the like (not shown) as information on the traveling state.

The map information acquisition unit 64 provides map information around the vehicle 1, such as the road on which the vehicle 1 travels, the merging point with another vehicle on the road, the lane currently being traveled, and the position of an intersection, in the situation around the vehicle 1. Get as information.

The sensor 62 is composed of a millimeter wave radar, a laser radar, a camera, or a combination thereof.

The storage unit 8 is a storage device such as a ROM (Read Only Memory), a RAM (Random Access Memory), a hard disk device, or an SSD (Solid State Drive). Memorize the correspondence between possible behavior candidates (later).

The current traveling environment is an environment determined by the position of the vehicle 1, the road on which the vehicle 1 is traveling, the position and speed of other vehicles existing around the vehicle 1, and the like. It should be noted that, based on not only the momentary data but also the data before and after that time, for example, depending on the position or speed of the other vehicle, it is possible that another vehicle interrupts during acceleration, deceleration, and collides one second later. You may even judge the sex. As a result, the behavior of other vehicles can be predicted, and the driving environment can be grasped in more detail and accurately. The behavior candidate is a behavior candidate that the vehicle 1 can take next (after the lapse of the first predetermined time) with respect to the current traveling environment.

For example, the storage unit 8 has a confluence in front of the lane in which the vehicle 1 travels, there is a vehicle merging from the left side of the lane, and the lane can be changed to the right in the lane in which the vehicle 1 travels. Three types of behavior candidates, acceleration of vehicle 1, deceleration of vehicle 1, and lane change to the right of vehicle 1, are stored in advance in association with the various traveling environments.

Further, in the storage unit 8, a vehicle traveling in front of the same lane as the vehicle 1 (hereinafter referred to as "preceding vehicle") travels at a slower speed than the vehicle 1 and can change lanes to the adjacent lane. In association with the various driving environments, three types of behavior candidates, traveling overtaking the preceding vehicle, traveling to change lanes to the adjacent lane, and traveling by decelerating the vehicle 1 to follow the preceding vehicle, are stored in advance.

Further, the storage unit 8 may store the priority order for each behavior candidate. For example, the storage unit 8 may store the number of behaviors actually adopted in the same running environment in the past, and may store the priority set higher as the number of times adopted increases.

The vehicle control unit 7 can be realized as, for example, an LSI circuit or a part of an electronic control unit (Electronic Control Unit: ECU) that controls the vehicle. The vehicle control unit 7 controls the vehicle based on the information on the traveling state and the surrounding conditions acquired from the detection unit 6, and the brake pedal 2, the accelerator pedal 3, the winker lever 4, and the information notification correspond to the vehicle control result. Control device 9. The target controlled by the vehicle control unit 7 is not limited to these.

First, the vehicle control unit 7 determines the current traveling environment based on the information on the traveling state and the surrounding conditions. Various conventionally proposed methods can be used for this determination.

For example, the vehicle control unit 7 determines that the current driving environment is "a vehicle having a merging flow path in front of the lane in which the vehicle 1 is traveling and merging from the left side of the lane" based on the information on the traveling state and the surrounding conditions. It is determined that the vehicle 1 exists and is in a traveling environment in which the vehicle 1 can change lanes to the right of the traveling lane.

Further, for example, the vehicle control unit 7 determines that the time series of the traveling environment is "a vehicle traveling in front of the same lane as the vehicle 1 travels at a slower speed than the vehicle 1" based on the information on the traveling state and the surrounding conditions. However, it is determined that the vehicle is in a driving environment where the lane can be changed to the next lane.

The vehicle control unit 7 causes the notification unit 92 of the information notification device 9 to notify the information regarding the traveling environment indicating the traveling state and the surrounding conditions. Further, the vehicle control unit 7 reads out from the storage unit 8 the candidates for the behavior that the vehicle 1 can take next (after the lapse of the first predetermined time) with respect to the determined traveling environment.

The vehicle control unit 7 determines which behavior is most suitable for the current driving environment from the read behavior candidates, and sets the behavior most suitable for the current driving environment as the first behavior. The first behavior may be the same behavior as the behavior currently being carried out by the vehicle, that is, the behavior currently being carried out may be continued. Then, the vehicle control unit 7 sets a candidate for a behavior that the driver can implement in addition to the first behavior in the current driving environment as the second behavior (behavior different from the so-called behavior to be executed).

For example, the vehicle control unit 7 may set the most suitable behavior as the first behavior by using the conventional technique of determining the most suitable behavior based on the information of the traveling state and the surrounding situation.

Alternatively, the vehicle control unit 7 may set a preset behavior among the plurality of behavior candidates as the most suitable behavior, or stores information on the previously selected behavior in the storage unit 8. , The behavior may be determined as the most suitable behavior, or the number of times each behavior has been selected in the past may be stored in the storage unit 8 and the behavior with the largest number of times may be determined as the most suitable behavior. Good.

Then, the vehicle control unit 7 causes the notification unit 92 of the information notification device 9 to notify the information of the first behavior and the second behavior. When the vehicle control unit 7 determines that there is no second behavior, the vehicle control unit 7 causes the notification unit 92 to notify only the first behavior.

The vehicle control unit 7 may simultaneously notify the notification unit 92 of the information on the first behavior and the second behavior, and the information on the traveling state and the surrounding situation.

Further, the vehicle control unit 7 acquires the operation information received from the driver by the operation unit 51. The vehicle control unit 7 determines whether or not the operation unit 51 has received the operation within the second predetermined time after notifying the first behavior and the second behavior. This operation is, for example, an operation of selecting one behavior from the behaviors included in the second behavior.

The vehicle control unit 7 controls the vehicle so as to execute the first behavior when the operation unit 51 does not receive the operation within the second predetermined time, and the brake pedal 2 and the accelerator correspond to the vehicle control result. Controls the pedal 3 and the winker lever 4.

When the operation unit 51 receives an operation within the second predetermined time, the vehicle control unit 7 performs control corresponding to the received operation.

The information notification device 9 acquires various information regarding the traveling of the vehicle 1 from the vehicle control unit 7, and notifies the acquired information. The information notification device 9 has an information acquisition unit 91 and a notification unit 92.

The information acquisition unit 91 acquires various information regarding the traveling of the vehicle 1 from the vehicle control unit 7. For example, when the vehicle control unit 7 determines that the behavior of the vehicle 1 may be updated, the information acquisition unit 91 acquires the information of the first behavior and the information of the second behavior from the vehicle control unit 7. To do.

Then, the information acquisition unit 91 temporarily stores the acquired information in a storage unit (not shown), reads the stored information from the storage unit as necessary, and outputs the stored information to the notification unit 92.

The notification unit 92 notifies the driver of information regarding the traveling of the vehicle 1. The notification unit 92 is a display unit that displays information such as a car navigation system installed in the vehicle, a head-up display, a center display, a steering wheel 5, or a light emitter such as an LED installed in a pillar. It may be present, it may be a speaker that converts information into voice and notifies the driver, or it may be provided at a position that the driver can detect (for example, the driver's seat, the steering wheel 5, etc.). It may be a vibrating body. Further, the notification unit 92 may be a combination of these.

In the following description, it is assumed that the notification unit 92 is a notification device.

In this case, the notification unit 92 is, for example, a head-up display (HUD), an LCD (Liquid Crystal Display), an HMD (Head-Mounted Display or Helmet-Mounted Display), a glasses-type display (Smart Glasses), and the like. Other dedicated displays, etc. The HUD may be, for example, a windshield of the vehicle 1, a separately provided glass surface, a plastic surface (for example, a combiner), or the like. Further, the windshield may be, for example, a windshield, a side glass of the vehicle 1, or a rear glass.

In addition, the HUD may be a transmissive display mounted on or inside the windshield. Here, the transmissive display is, for example, a transmissive organic EL display or a transparent display using glass that emits light when irradiated with light having a specific wavelength. The driver can visually recognize the background and at the same time visually recognize the display on the transmissive display. As described above, the notification unit 92 may be a display medium that transmits light. In either case, the image is displayed on the notification unit 92.

The notification unit 92 notifies the driver of travel-related information acquired from the vehicle control unit 7 via the information acquisition unit 91. For example, the notification unit 92 notifies the driver of the information of the first behavior and the second behavior acquired from the vehicle control unit 7.

Here, specific display contents and operations performed on the operation unit 51 will be described.

FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating a first example of a traveling environment, a display of the notification unit 92 for the first example, and an operation of the operation unit 51.

FIG. 2A is a bird's-eye view showing the traveling environment of the vehicle 1. Specifically, in FIG. 2A, there is a confluence in front of the lane in which the vehicle 1 travels, there is a vehicle merging from the left side of the lane, and the vehicle 1 travels to the right in the lane. It shows that the driving environment is such that the lane can be changed.

The vehicle control unit 7 determines that the traveling environment is the traveling environment as shown in FIG. 2A based on the information on the traveling state and the surrounding conditions. The vehicle control unit 7 generates the bird's-eye view shown in FIG. 2A, and causes the notification unit 92 to notify the generated bird's-eye view in addition to the information on the first behavior and the second behavior. May be good.

FIG. 2B shows an example of the display of the notification unit 92 for the traveling environment shown in FIG. 2A. In the display range of the notification unit 92, options related to the behavior of the vehicle 1 are displayed on the right side, and information for switching to manual driving is displayed on the left side.

The first behavior is the "lane change" shown in the highlighted display area 29b of the display areas 29a-29c, 29g. The second behavior is "acceleration" and "deceleration" shown in the display areas 29a and 29c, respectively. Further, in the display area 29g, "automatic operation end" indicating switching to manual operation is displayed.

FIG. 2C shows an example of the operation unit 51 provided on the steering wheel 5. The operation unit 51 has operation buttons 51a to 51d provided on the right side of the steering wheel 5 and operation buttons 51e to 51h provided on the left side of the steering wheel 5. The number and shape of the operation units 51 provided on the steering wheel 5 are not limited to these.

In the present embodiment, the display areas 29a to 29c shown in FIG. 2B correspond to the operation buttons 51a to 51c, respectively, and the display area 29g and the operation button 51g correspond to each other.

In this configuration, the driver presses an operation button corresponding to each display area when selecting any of the contents displayed in each display area. For example, when the driver selects the behavior of "acceleration" displayed in the display area 29a, the driver presses the operation button 51a.

Although only character information is displayed in each display area in FIG. 2B, symbols or icons related to vehicle driving may be displayed as described below. As a result, the driver can clearly grasp the displayed contents.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing another example of the display in the notification unit 92. As shown in FIG. 3, both the character information and the symbol indicating the information are displayed in the display areas 39a to 39c and 39g. In addition, only a symbol may be displayed.

Next, the flow of display control will be described by taking a specific driving environment as an example.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing a processing procedure of information notification processing in the present embodiment. FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a first example of a running environment and display control for the first example.

As shown in FIG. 4, the detection unit 6 detects the traveling state of the vehicle (step S11). Next, the detection unit 6 detects the situation around the vehicle (step S12). The detected vehicle running state and information on the surrounding conditions of the vehicle are output to the vehicle control unit 7 by the detection unit 6.

Next, the vehicle control unit 7 determines the current traveling environment based on the information on the traveling state and the surrounding conditions (step S13). In the case of the example of FIG. 5A, the vehicle control unit 7 states that the current driving environment is "there is a confluence in front of the lane in which the vehicle 1 is traveling, there is a vehicle merging from the left side of the lane, and there is a vehicle merging. , It is determined that the vehicle 1 is in a traveling environment in which the lane can be changed to the right of the lane in which the vehicle 1 is traveling.

After that, the vehicle control unit 7 notifies the notification unit 92 of the information notification device 9 of the determined information on the traveling environment (step S14). In the case of the example of FIG. 5B, the vehicle control unit 7 outputs the determined driving environment information to the information acquisition unit 91. The notification unit 92 acquires information on the traveling environment from the information acquisition unit 91 and displays it as character information 59. The vehicle control unit 7 may notify the driver of the driving environment information as voice by a speaker or the like instead of displaying the driving environment information on the notification unit 92. This ensures that information is communicated to the driver even if the driver is not looking at or overlooking the display or monitor.

Next, the vehicle control unit 7 determines whether or not the determined driving environment has the possibility of updating the behavior, and if it is determined that the determined driving environment has the possibility of updating, the first behavior, further, Then, the second behavior is determined (step S15). Whether or not the driving environment has the possibility of updating the behavior is determined by whether or not the driving environment has changed. The behavior to be implemented after the update is, for example, deceleration when there is a possibility of collision with another vehicle, speed change when the preceding vehicle disappears in ACC (Adaptive Cruise Control), and the adjacent lane. It is conceivable to change lanes when there is a vacancy. When determining whether or not to update, the prior art is used.

In this case, the vehicle control unit 7 reads out from the storage unit 8 the candidates for the behavior that the vehicle 1 can take next (after the lapse of the first predetermined time) with respect to the determined traveling environment. Then, the vehicle control unit 7 determines which behavior is most suitable for the current driving environment from the behavior candidates, and sets the behavior most suitable for the current driving environment as the first behavior. Then, the vehicle control unit 7 sets the candidates for the behavior other than the first behavior as the second behavior.

In the case of the example of FIG. 5B, the vehicle control unit 7 reads out from the storage unit 8 three types of behavior candidates: acceleration of vehicle 1, deceleration of vehicle 1, and lane change to the right of vehicle 1. .. Then, the vehicle control unit 7 determines that changing the lane to the right of the vehicle 1 is the most suitable behavior based on the speed of the vehicles merging from the left and the condition of the right lane of the vehicle 1. , The behavior is set to the first behavior. Then, the vehicle control unit 7 sets the candidates for the behavior other than the first behavior as the second behavior.

Next, the vehicle control unit 7 notifies the notification unit 92 of the information notification device 9 of the first behavior and the second behavior (step S16). In the case of the example of FIG. 5B, the notification unit 92 emphasizes and displays the character information "lane change" which is the information of the first behavior in the display area 59b, and is the information of the second behavior " "Acceleration" and "deceleration" are displayed in the display areas 59a and 59c, respectively.

Next, the vehicle control unit 7 determines whether or not the operation unit 51 has received the operation from the driver within the second predetermined time (step S17).

For example, the vehicle control unit 7 sets the time from determining that the current traveling environment is the traveling environment shown in FIG. 5A to reaching the merging point as the first predetermined time. Then, the vehicle control unit 7 sets a second predetermined time, which is shorter than the first predetermined time, as a time during which an operation for the next behavior executed up to the merging point can be accepted.

When the operation unit 51 receives an operation from the driver within the second predetermined time (YES in step S17), the vehicle control unit 7 receives an operation of ending automatic driving or a behavior selection operation (so-called). (Update) is determined (step S18).

As described with reference to FIG. 2, each display area of the notification unit 92 and each operation button of the operation unit 51 correspond to each other. When selecting the end of automatic operation in FIG. 5B, the driver presses the operation button 51g shown in FIG. 2C. Further, when selecting the behavior, the driver presses any of the operation buttons 51a to 51c shown in FIG. 2C.

When the operation received by the operation unit 51 is the operation of ending the automatic driving (that is, when it is detected that the operation button 51g is pressed), the vehicle control unit 7 ends the automatic driving (step S19). When the operation received by the operation unit 51 is a behavior selection operation (that is, when any of the operation buttons 51a to 51c is pressed), the vehicle control unit 7 executes the behavior corresponding to the pressed operation button. The vehicle 1 is controlled so as to be performed (step S20).

The vehicle control unit 7 controls the vehicle 1 so as to execute the first behavior when the operation unit 51 does not receive the operation from the driver within the second predetermined time (NO in step S17). (Step S21).

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing a first example of a running environment and another display control for the first example. 6 (a) is the same as FIG. 5 (a), but the display control of FIG. 6 (b) is different from the display control of FIG. 5 (b).

Similar to the case described with reference to FIG. 5B, the vehicle control unit 7 accelerates the vehicle 1 and decelerates the vehicle 1 from the storage unit 8 with respect to the traveling environment shown in FIG. 6A. And three behavioral candidates for changing lanes to the right of vehicle 1 are read out. At that time, it is assumed that the storage unit 8 stores the lane change to the right of the vehicle 1 as the behavior having the highest priority.

In this case, the vehicle control unit 7 causes the notification unit 92 to notify the information on the traveling environment and the information on the first behavior. In the case of FIG. 6B, the vehicle control unit 7 generates character information 69 indicating information on the traveling environment and information on the first behavior, and causes the notification unit 92 to display the character information 69.

Then, the vehicle control unit 7 causes the driver to display a display prompting the driver to adopt or reject the first behavior in the display areas 69a and 69c. Further, the vehicle control unit 7 displays the display "automatic driving end" indicating that it is possible to switch to manual driving in the display area 69g.

Here, the vehicle control unit 7 emphasizes and displays "YES" corresponding to adopting the first behavior. Whether to emphasize "YES" or "NO" may be predetermined, the previously selected option may be emphasized, or the number of times selected in the past. May be stored in the storage unit 8, and the notification unit 92 may emphasize and display the one with the larger number of times.

By learning the behavior selected in the past in this way, the vehicle control unit 7 can appropriately notify the driver of the information. Further, the display to be notified to the notification unit 92 can be reduced as compared with the case of FIG. 5B, and the troublesomeness of the driver can be reduced.

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing a second example of the traveling environment and display control for the second example. FIG. 7A is a bird's-eye view showing the driving environment. The traveling environment shown in FIG. 7 (a) is similar to that of FIGS. 5 (a) and 6 (a) in that there is a confluence in the front, but FIG. 5 is in that the traveling vehicle exists on the right side of the vehicle 1. (A) is different from FIG. 6 (a). In such a case, the vehicle control unit 7 determines that the lane cannot be changed.

Then, when the vehicle control unit 7 determines that the traveling environment of the vehicle 1 is as shown in FIG. 7A, the vehicle control unit 7 transmits the determined driving environment information to the notification unit 92 as shown in FIG. 7B. It is displayed as information 79.

Further, the vehicle control unit 7 is located on the right side of the vehicle 1 among the three behavior candidates of acceleration of the vehicle 1, deceleration of the vehicle 1, and lane change to the right of the vehicle 1 read from the storage unit 8. Since the lane cannot be changed to, only acceleration of vehicle 1 and deceleration of vehicle 1 are selected.

Further, the vehicle control unit 7 predicts that the vehicle will be too close to the merging vehicle if it proceeds at the same speed, and determines that the deceleration of the vehicle 1 is the most suitable behavior, that is, the first behavior.

Here, which of the three behavior candidates is the most suitable behavior is determined by using a conventional technique for determining the most suitable behavior based on information on the running state and the surrounding conditions. Further, which of the most suitable behaviors may be predetermined, or information on the previously selected behavior may be stored in the storage unit 8 and the behavior may be determined to be the most suitable behavior. Then, the number of times each behavior is selected in the past may be stored in the storage unit 8, and the behavior with the largest number of times may be determined as the most suitable behavior.

After that, the vehicle control unit 7 displays "deceleration" as the first behavior in the display area 79c and "acceleration" as the second behavior in the display area 79a. Further, the vehicle control unit 7 displays a display of "automatic driving end" indicating switching to manual driving in the display area 79g.

With such display control, the vehicle control unit 7 can notify the driver of the behavior most suitable for the driving environment as the first behavior according to the driving environment.

The information of the first behavior may be arranged above and the information of the second behavior may be arranged below, and the selection function may be assigned to the operation buttons 51a and 51c, respectively. The information on the behavior of the right lane change may be arranged on the right side, and the information on the behavior of the left lane change may be arranged on the left side, and the selection function may be assigned to the operation buttons 51a, 51c, 51b, and 51d, respectively. It is possible to switch between them and separately display whether it is an action priority arrangement or an operation priority arrangement. Further, the display size of the information of the first behavior may be increased and the display size of the information of the second behavior may be decreased. By arranging the display of the behavior information corresponding to the front / rear / left / right behavior of the vehicle, the driver can intuitively recognize and operate the vehicle.

Next, an example of a driving environment other than the driving environment in which there is a junction in front will be described.

FIG. 8 is a diagram showing a third example of the traveling environment and display control for the third example. FIG. 8A is a bird's-eye view showing the traveling environment of the vehicle 1. Specifically, FIG. 8A shows a traveling environment in which the preceding vehicle travels at a speed slower than that of vehicle 1 and can change lanes to the adjacent lane.

The vehicle control unit 7 determines that the traveling environment is the traveling environment as shown in FIG. 8A based on the information on the traveling state and the surrounding conditions. In this case, the vehicle control unit 7 causes the notification unit 92 to display the determined information on the traveling environment as character information 89.

In addition, the vehicle control unit 7 has three types of behavior candidates corresponding to the determined driving environment: traveling overtaking the preceding vehicle, traveling to change lanes to the adjacent lane, and traveling by decelerating vehicle 1 to follow the preceding vehicle. Candidates for street behavior are read from the storage unit 8.

Then, for example, since the speed of the preceding vehicle after deceleration can be allowed to be higher than a predetermined value, the vehicle control unit 7 decelerates the vehicle 1 and follows the preceding vehicle in the most suitable behavior, that is, the first behavior. Is determined to be.

Here, which of the three behavior candidates is the most suitable behavior is determined by using a conventional technique for determining the most suitable behavior based on information on the running state and the surrounding conditions. Further, which of the most suitable behaviors may be predetermined, or information on the previously selected behavior may be stored in the storage unit 8 and the behavior may be determined to be the most suitable behavior. Then, the number of times each behavior is selected in the past may be stored in the storage unit 8, and the behavior with the largest number of times may be determined as the most suitable behavior.

Further, as shown in FIG. 8B, the vehicle control unit 7 emphasizes and displays the character information "following" indicating the first behavior in the display area 89c, and "passing" indicating the second behavior. , The character information "change lane" is displayed in the display areas 89a and 89b, respectively. Further, the vehicle control unit 7 displays the display "automatic driving end" indicating switching to manual driving in the display area 89g.

The information of the first behavior may be arranged above and the information of the second behavior may be arranged below, and the selection function may be assigned to the operation buttons 51a and 51c, respectively. The information on the behavior of the right lane change may be arranged on the right side, and the information on the behavior of the left lane change may be arranged on the left side, and the selection function may be assigned to the operation buttons 51a, 51c, 51b, and 51d, respectively. It is possible to switch between them and separately display whether it is an action priority arrangement or an operation priority arrangement. Further, the display size of the information of the first behavior may be increased and the display size of the information of the second behavior may be decreased.

FIG. 9 is a diagram showing a fourth example of the traveling environment and display control for the fourth example. FIG. 9A is a bird's-eye view showing the traveling environment of the vehicle 1. Specifically, FIG. 9A shows that the traveling environment is a traveling environment in which the number of lanes decreases in front of the same lane as the vehicle 1.

The vehicle control unit 7 determines that the traveling environment is the traveling environment as shown in FIG. 9A based on the information on the traveling state and the surrounding conditions. In this case, the vehicle control unit 7 causes the notification unit 92 to display the determined information on the traveling environment as character information 99.

Further, the vehicle control unit 7 reads out from the storage unit 8 two types of behavior candidates, that is, traveling that changes lanes to the adjacent lane and traveling that maintains the current lane as they are, as behavior candidates corresponding to the determined driving environment. ..

Then, the vehicle control unit 7 determines, for example, that the TTC to the lane reduction location is shorter than the predetermined value, so that traveling that changes lanes to the adjacent lane is the most suitable behavior, that is, the first behavior. To do.

Here, which of the two behavior candidates is the most suitable behavior is determined by using the conventional technique for determining the most suitable behavior based on the information on the running state and the surrounding conditions. Further, which of the most suitable behaviors may be predetermined, or information on the previously selected behavior may be stored in the storage unit 8 and the behavior may be determined to be the most suitable behavior. Then, the number of times each behavior is selected in the past may be stored in the storage unit 8, and the behavior with the largest number of times may be determined as the most suitable behavior.

Further, as shown in FIG. 9B, the vehicle control unit 7 emphasizes and displays the character information "lane change" indicating the first behavior in the display area 99b, and "as is" indicating the second behavior. Is displayed in the display area 99c. Further, the vehicle control unit 7 displays a display of "automatic driving end" indicating switching to manual driving in the display area 99g.

The information on the first behavior may be placed above and the information on the second behavior may be placed below, and the selection function may be assigned to the operation buttons 51a and 51c, respectively. The change behavior information may be placed on the right and the left lane change behavior information may be placed on the left, and selection functions may be assigned to the operation buttons 51c, 51b, and 51d, respectively. It may be displayed whether it is an action priority arrangement or an operation priority arrangement. Further, the display size of the information of the first behavior may be increased and the display size of the information of the second behavior may be decreased. As shown in FIGS. 7, 8 and 9, different functions are assigned to the display areas depending on different driving environments, so that information can be notified or operated in a small area.

In the above description, the case where the vehicle control unit 7 causes the notification unit 92 to notify the behavior according to the information of the traveling environment and the surrounding conditions has been described, but the present invention is not limited to this. For example, when the driver performs a predetermined operation, the notification unit 92 may notify the behavior.

FIG. 10 is a diagram showing a fifth example of a running environment and display control for the fifth example. FIG. 10A is a bird's-eye view showing the traveling environment of the vehicle 1. Specifically, FIG. 10A shows a traveling environment indicating that the vehicle 1 is a traveling environment in which the lane can be changed to the left and the right, respectively.

The traveling environment shown in FIG. 10A is different from the case of FIGS. 5A to 9A, and is a traveling environment in which normal traveling is possible without changing lanes or accelerating or decelerating the vehicle. In this case, as shown in the display 109 of FIG. 10B, the vehicle control unit 7 does not have to display the information on the traveling environment on the notification unit 92 as character information.

When the driver presses any of the operation buttons of the operation unit 51 in the situation where the character information is not displayed on the notification unit 92, the vehicle control unit 7 stores the candidates for the behavior in the normal driving as the storage unit 8. Read from.

Specifically, the storage unit 8 is associated with the driving environment of normal driving as shown in FIG. 10A, and accelerates the vehicle 1, decelerates the vehicle 1, and changes the lane to the right of the vehicle 1. Four types of behavior candidates for changing lanes to the left of vehicle 1 are stored. The vehicle control unit 7 reads these out and displays them in the display areas 109a to 109d of the notification unit 92, respectively.

Further, the vehicle control unit 7 displays a display of "automatic driving end" indicating switching to manual driving in the display area 99g, and displays a display of "cancel" indicating canceling the update of the behavior in the display area 109e. Highlight and display.

According to the present embodiment described above, it is possible to effectively notify the driver of the candidate for the behavior to be executed next and to make the driver select a preferable behavior.

Instead of selecting the behavior that the driver wants to perform, the driver may directly operate the steering wheel or the like. As a result, the driver can quickly switch to the manual driving operation at his / her own will.

[Modification example]
In the present embodiment described above, the display in the notification unit 92 has been described as character information, but the present invention is not limited to this. For example, it may be displayed visually by the driver using a symbol indicating the behavior. In the following, a display using symbols to be visually displayed by the driver will be described by taking the display with respect to FIGS. 5 and 7 as an example.

FIG. 11 is a diagram showing another display control with respect to the first example of the traveling environment shown in FIG. In this example, the first behavior described above is the lane change to the right of the vehicle 1, and the second behavior is the acceleration of the vehicle 1 and the deceleration of the vehicle 1.

In this case, the symbol 111 indicating the first behavior "lane change" is displayed large in the center, and the symbol 112 indicating the second behavior "acceleration of vehicle 1" and "deceleration of vehicle 1" are displayed. The symbol 113 is displayed small to the right. In addition, the symbol 114 indicating the end of automatic operation is displayed small on the left side.

Then, if the driver does not receive the instruction to change the behavior of the vehicle 1 as it is, the lane is changed.

FIG. 12 is a diagram showing another display control with respect to the second example of the traveling environment shown in FIG. 7. In this example, unlike the first example, another vehicle is traveling to the right of the vehicle 1, so that the lane cannot be changed. Therefore, for example, "deceleration of vehicle 1" is set as the first behavior, and "acceleration of vehicle 1" is set as the second behavior.

Then, in this case, as shown in FIG. 12A, the symbol 121 indicating the first behavior "deceleration of the vehicle 1" is displayed in a large size in the center, and the second behavior "acceleration of the vehicle 1" is displayed. The symbol 122 indicating is displayed small to the right. In addition, the symbol 123 indicating the end of automatic operation is displayed small on the left side.

Here, it is assumed that the operation unit 51 receives an operation of selecting "acceleration of the vehicle 1" from the driver. In this case, as shown in FIG. 12B, the symbol 122'indicating the first behavior “acceleration of vehicle 1” is displayed large in the center, and the second behavior “deceleration of vehicle 1” is displayed. The symbol 121'indicating will be displayed small to the right.

According to the present embodiment described above, it is possible to effectively notify the driver of the candidate for the behavior to be executed next and to make the driver select a preferable behavior. On the other hand, the driver can grasp the behavior performed by the vehicle and other selectable behaviors, and can continue the automatic driving with a sense of security. Alternatively, the driver can smoothly give instructions to the car.

Further, according to the present embodiment, it is possible to change the option of notifying the notification unit, that is, the second behavior, according to the traveling environment.

(Embodiment 2)
In the first embodiment, the configuration in which the operation unit 51 provided on the steering wheel 5 performs an operation according to the display of the notification unit 92 has been described. In the present embodiment, a configuration in which a touch panel is provided instead of the operation unit 51 provided on the steering wheel 5 will be described.

FIG. 13 is a block diagram showing a main configuration of the vehicle 1 including the information notification device according to the second embodiment of the present invention. In FIG. 13, the same reference numerals as those in FIG. 1 are assigned to the configurations common to those in FIG. 1, and detailed description thereof will be omitted. The vehicle 1 shown in FIG. 13 is provided with a touch panel 10 instead of the operation unit 51 of the steering wheel 5.

The touch panel 10 is a device including a liquid crystal panel or the like capable of displaying information and receiving input, and is connected to the vehicle control unit 7. The touch panel 10 has a display unit 101 that displays information based on control by the vehicle control unit 7, and an input unit 102 that receives an operation from a driver or the like and outputs the received operation to the vehicle control unit 7.

Next, the display control of the touch panel 10 will be described. Here, the display control when the vehicle 1 is traveling in the center of three lanes and the lane can be changed to either the right lane or the left lane will be described.

FIG. 14 is a diagram illustrating the display of the touch panel 10 in the second embodiment. FIG. 14A is an initial display of the display unit 101 of the touch panel 10. When the vehicle control unit 7 determines that the vehicle 1 can change lanes to either the right lane or the left lane, the vehicle control unit 7 displays a display as shown in FIG. 14A on the display unit 101 of the touch panel 10. Let it run. Here, the display "Touch" in the display area 121 indicates that the touch panel 10 is in a mode in which the touch operation by the driver can be received.

When the driver performs a touch operation of touching the display area 121 in the display shown in FIG. 14A, the input unit 102 receives this operation and controls the vehicle with information indicating that this operation has been performed. Output to unit 7. Upon receiving this information, the vehicle control unit 7 causes the display unit 101 to display the display shown in FIG. 14B, and causes the notification unit 92 to display the display shown in FIG. 14C.

FIG. 14B shows a display area 121a displayed as “Move” indicating that the operation is an operation instructing the vehicle 1 to move. Further, FIG. 14B shows display areas 121b to 121d indicating that the vehicle 1 can travel in each of the three lanes. The display areas 121b to 121d correspond to traveling in the lanes indicated by arrows X, Y, and Z in FIG. 14 (c), respectively.

Further, each display area of FIG. 14 (b) and each arrow of FIG. 14 (c) have the same mode (for example, color or arrangement). This makes the display easier for the driver to understand.

Further, the thickness of the lane indicated by the arrows X, Y, and Z may be changed so that the behavior determined by the vehicle control and the behavior that can be selected by the driver can be distinguished from each other. ..

The driver selects the behavior of the vehicle 1 by touching the display area corresponding to the lane in which he / she wants to drive in the display areas 121b to 121d. In this case, the input unit 102 receives the driver's behavior selection operation and outputs the information on the selected behavior to the vehicle control unit 7. Then, the vehicle control unit 7 controls the vehicle 1 to execute the selected behavior. As a result, the vehicle 1 travels in the lane in which the driver wants to travel.

The driver may perform a swipe operation on the touch panel 10 instead of the touch operation. For example, in the example shown in FIG. 14, when the driver wants to change to the lane indicated by the arrow X in FIG. 14C, the driver swipes to the right on the touch panel 10.

In this case, the input unit 102 receives the swipe operation and outputs information indicating the content of the swipe operation to the vehicle control unit 7. Then, the vehicle control unit 7 controls the vehicle 1 so as to execute the lane change to the lane indicated by the arrow X, which is the selected behavior.

Further, when the display area 121a displayed as "Move" indicating that the operation is an operation instructing the vehicle 1 to move is indicated, the voice may say "behavior selection" or the like. As a result, the operation can be performed only by displaying the HUD without looking at the touch panel at hand.

Further, at the time of touch operation or swipe operation, the display mode of the lane corresponding to the display area of the selected touch panel may be changed so that it can be confirmed before selection which lane the lane is to be selected. For example, the moment the display area b is touched, the thickness of the lane X expands, and if the hand is released immediately, the lane X is not selected and the thickness of the lane X returns to the original size, and the display area 121c is touched. At the moment of moving, the thickness of the lane Y expands, and if the state is held for a while, the lane Y may be selected and the lane Y may be blinked to indicate that the determination has been made. As a result, the selection or determination operation can be performed without visually observing the hand.

As in the first embodiment, vehicle control functions such as acceleration, deceleration, overtaking, and as-is may be assigned to the display area according to the driving environment.

According to the present embodiment described above, by providing a touch panel instead of the operation unit, the driver can perform intuitive operations. Further, since the touch panel can freely change the number, shape, color, etc. of the display area for receiving the operation, the degree of freedom of the user interface is improved.

(Embodiment 3)
In the first embodiment, the case where the first behavior and the second behavior are displayed at the same time has been described. In the present embodiment, first, the configuration in which the first behavior is displayed on the notification unit 92 and the second behavior is displayed when the driver's operation is received will be described.

The configuration according to the present embodiment is the configuration of FIG. 1 described in the first embodiment, in which the operation unit 51 further includes a grip sensor for detecting whether or not the driver has gripped the steering wheel 5. ..

FIG. 15 is a diagram illustrating the display of the notification unit 92 in the third embodiment of the present invention. In FIG. 15, as in the case shown in FIG. 8A, the vehicle traveling in front of the same lane as the vehicle 1 travels at a slower speed than the vehicle 1, and the lane is changed to the adjacent lane. An example of the display in a possible driving environment is shown.

When the vehicle control unit 7 determines that the traveling environment is the traveling environment shown in FIG. 8A, the vehicle control unit 7 first causes the notification unit 92 to execute the display shown in FIG. 15A.

In FIG. 15A, among the behavior candidates to be executed after the lapse of the first predetermined time, the symbol 131 indicating “passing”, which is the first behavior, is the first aspect (for example, the first color). ).

When the second predetermined time elapses after the notification unit 92 executes the display shown in FIG. 15A, the vehicle control unit 7 changes the symbol 131 from the first aspect to the first aspect. The notification unit 92 is displayed in the second mode (for example, a second color different from the first color). Here, the second predetermined time is the same as the second predetermined time described in the first embodiment.

That is, while the symbol 131 is shown in the first aspect, the driver can choose a second behavior, but if the symbol 131 is changed to the second aspect, the driver will have a second. It becomes impossible to select the behavior of 2.

Further, FIG. 15A shows a steering wheel shape symbol 132 indicating that the second behavior can be selected. When the driver holds the steering wheel 5 when the symbol 132 is displayed, the second behavior is displayed. The symbol 132 is a display indicating that the second behavior can be selected, but by displaying the symbol 131 in the first aspect, the driver can select the second behavior. It may be shown. In this case, the symbol 132 may not be displayed.

Further, FIG. 15A shows a symbol 133 indicating that the vehicle is currently in automatic operation. The symbol 133 is an auxiliary display indicating to the driver that the vehicle is being driven by automatic driving, but the symbol 133 may not be displayed.

When the driver grips the steering wheel 5 with respect to the display of FIG. 15A, the grip sensor detects it and outputs the information of the detection result to the vehicle control unit 7. In this case, the vehicle control unit 7 causes the notification unit 92 to execute the display shown in FIG. 15B.

Similar to FIG. 15 (a), FIG. 15 (b) shows the symbol 131 indicating the first behavior of “passing” in the first aspect (for example, the first color). Further, a symbol 134 indicating "lane change", which is the second behavior, and a symbol 135 indicating "deceleration", which is the second behavior, are shown.

The driver changes from the first behavior to the second behavior by operating the operation unit 51 of the steering wheel 5. For example, the driver presses the operation button 51a or the operation button 51c (see FIG. 2C) of the operation unit 51 to "change lane" (symbol 134) or "decelerate" (symbol 135). ) Is updated.

Further, FIG. 15B shows a symbol 136 indicating that the vehicle control unit 7 is learning the behavior of the vehicle 1. When the symbol 136 is displayed, the vehicle control unit 7 learns the behavior selected by the driver. The symbol 136 may not be displayed. In addition, learning may be carried out at all times.

That is, the vehicle control unit 7 stores the behavior selected by the driver in the storage unit 8, and when the same driving environment is obtained next time, the vehicle control unit 7 causes the notification unit 92 to display the stored behavior as the first behavior. Alternatively, the vehicle control unit 7 may store the number of times each behavior has been selected in the past in the storage unit 8, and display the behavior with the largest number of times as the first behavior in the notification unit 92.

Further, in FIG. 15B, a symbol 137 indicating that the vehicle is not in automatic operation is shown. When the symbol 137 is displayed, the vehicle control unit 7 waits until the driver selects the behavior to be performed after the lapse of the first predetermined time.

When the driver presses the operation button 51a of the operation unit 51 to select "change lane" with respect to the display shown in FIG. 15B, the vehicle control unit 7 receives the information of this selection operation, and FIG. The notification unit 92 is made to execute the display shown in 15 (c).

In FIG. 15 (c), the symbol 134'indicating "lane change" is shown in the first aspect. When the vehicle control unit 7 receives the information of the selection operation for selecting "lane change", the vehicle control unit 7 determines that the selected behavior is the next behavior to be performed, and sets the symbol 134'indicating "lane change" to the first. It is displayed on the notification unit 92 in the manner of.

Further, the symbol 131'in FIG. 15 (c) is displayed in which the symbol 131 displayed as the first behavior in FIG. 15 (b) is replaced with the symbol 134.

Further, when the driver presses any of the operation buttons twice in succession with respect to the display shown in FIG. 15 (c), the driver may be able to cancel the previously performed selection operation. In this case, the vehicle control unit 7 receives information on the operation of pressing any of the operation buttons twice in succession, and notifies the change from the display shown in FIG. 15 (c) to the display shown in FIG. 15 (b). Let unit 92 execute.

The vehicle control unit 7 has the display shown in FIG. 15 (a) executed by the notification unit 92 until the second predetermined time elapses, based on the driver's operation, FIG. 15 (b). , The display of the notification unit 92 is changed to FIG. 15 (c). After that, the vehicle control unit 7 causes the notification unit 92 to display the display shown in FIG. 15D after a second predetermined time has elapsed after causing the notification unit 92 to execute the display shown in FIG. 15A. ..

When the vehicle control unit 7 acquires the information indicating that the driver has released the steering wheel 5 from the grip sensor, the vehicle control unit 7 displays the display shown in FIG. 15 (d) before the second predetermined time elapses. It may be displayed on the notification unit 92.

Here, in FIG. 15 (d), as the next behavior, the symbol 134'indicating the "lane change" selected by the driver is displayed in the second mode, and it is shown that the vehicle is traveling in automatic driving. The indicated symbol 133 is shown again in the displayed state.

According to the present embodiment described above, the vehicle control unit 7 changes the display on the notification unit 92 so that candidates for other behaviors can be confirmed only when the driver wants to update the behavior to be taken next. To do. With this configuration, the display visually recognized by the driver can be reduced, and the annoyance of the driver can be reduced.

(Embodiment 4)
In the above-described embodiment, some methods for determining which of the plurality of behavior candidates that the vehicle 1 can perform is the most suitable behavior have been described. In the present embodiment, a case where a driver model constructed in advance by learning is used as a method for determining the most suitable behavior will be described.

Here, a method of constructing a driver model will be described. The driver model is a model of the tendency of the driver's operation for each driving environment based on information such as the frequency of each operation. The driver model aggregates the driving history of a plurality of drivers and is constructed from the aggregated driving history.

The driving history of the driver is, for example, a history in which the frequency of the behavior actually selected by the driver among the behavior candidates corresponding to each driving environment is aggregated for each behavior candidate.

FIG. 16 is a diagram showing an example of a traveling history. In FIG. 16, the driver x selected the behavior candidates of “deceleration”, “acceleration”, and “lane change” three times, once, and five times, respectively, in the driving environment of “approaching the confluence”. Is shown. Further, in FIG. 16, in a driving environment in which the driver X has a “low-speed vehicle in front”, candidates for behaviors of “following”, “passing”, and “changing lanes” are selected twice, twice, and 1 respectively. It is shown that the selection was made twice. The same applies to the driver y.

The driving history of the driver may be aggregating the behaviors selected during the automatic driving, or may be aggregating the behaviors actually performed by the driver during the manual driving. As a result, it is possible to collect the driving history according to the driving state such as automatic driving or manual driving.

The driver model includes a clustering type that clusters and constructs the driving history of a plurality of drivers, and a driver model of the driver x from a plurality of driving histories similar to the driving history of a specific driver (for example, the driver x). There is an individual adaptive type that builds.

First, the clustering type will be described. In the method of constructing a clustering type driver model, the driving history of a plurality of drivers as shown in FIG. 16 is aggregated in advance. Then, a plurality of drivers having a high degree of similarity in driving history, that is, a plurality of drivers having similar driving operation tendencies are grouped to construct a driver model.

FIG. 17 is a diagram showing a method of constructing a clustering type driver model. In FIG. 17, the driving history of the drivers a to f is shown in a table format. Then, from the driving history of the drivers a to f, it is shown that the model A is constructed from the driving history of the drivers a to c, and the model B is constructed from the driving history of the drivers d to f.

For the similarity of the driving history, for example, each frequency (each numerical value) in the driving history of the driver a and the driver b is treated as a frequency distribution, a correlation value of each other's frequency distribution is calculated, and the calculated correlation value is used as the similarity. May be. In this case, for example, when the correlation value calculated from the driving history of the driver a and the driver b is higher than the predetermined value, the driving history of the driver a and the driver b is grouped.

The calculation of similarity is not limited to this. For example, in each of the driving histories of the driver a and the driver b, the similarity may be calculated based on the number of matching behaviors with the highest frequency.

Then, the clustering type driver model is constructed by, for example, calculating the average of each frequency in the driving history of the drivers in each group.

FIG. 18 is a diagram showing an example of a constructed clustering type driver model. In the driving history of the drivers in each group shown in FIG. 17, the average frequency of the driving history of each group is derived by calculating the average of each frequency. In this way, the clustering type driver model is constructed with an average frequency for the behavior determined for each driving environment.

The driver model may be constructed only with the one with the highest frequency from the calculated average frequency. FIG. 19 is a diagram showing another example of the constructed clustering type driver model. As shown in FIG. 19, the most frequent behavior is selected for each driving environment, and a driver model is constructed from the selected behavior.

Here, how to use the constructed clustering type driver model will be described with an example.

The driver model as shown in FIG. 18 is stored in advance in the storage unit 8 of the vehicle 1. Further, the vehicle control unit 7 stores the travel history when the driver y has driven in the past in the storage unit 8. The detection of the driver y is executed by a camera or the like (not shown) installed in the vehicle.

Then, the vehicle control unit 7 calculates the similarity between the driving history of the driver y and the driving history of each model of the driver model, and determines which model is most suitable for the driver y. For example, in the case of the driving history of the driver y shown in FIG. 16 and the driver model shown in FIG. 18, the vehicle control unit 7 determines that the model B is most suitable for the driver y.

In the actual automatic driving, the vehicle control unit 7 determines that the most frequent behavior in each driving environment of the model B is the behavior most suitable for the driver y, that is, the first behavior.

In this way, by constructing the driver model from the driving history of a plurality of drivers in advance, it is possible to notify the behavior more suitable for the driver.

For example, as shown in FIG. 16, the frequency of behavior with respect to the driving environment of "there is a low-speed vehicle in front" is 0 in the driving history of the driver y, that is, in the driving environment where the driver is "there is a low-speed vehicle in front" Even when the behaviors of "following", "passing", and "changing lanes" have never been selected, the vehicle control unit 7 is based on the model B shown in FIG. "Following" can be determined as the first behavior.

Next, the individual adaptation type will be described. The method of constructing the individually adaptive driver model is the same as in the case of the clustering type, in which the driving history of a plurality of drivers as shown in FIG. 16 is aggregated in advance. Here, the difference from the clustering type is that a driver model is constructed for each driver. An example of constructing a driver model for the driver y will be described below.

First, the driving history of a plurality of drivers having a high degree of similarity to the driving history of the driver y is extracted from the aggregated driving history of the plurality of drivers. Then, a driver model of the driver y is constructed from the driving histories of the extracted plurality of drivers.

FIG. 20 is a diagram showing a method of constructing an individually adaptive driver model. Similar to FIG. 17, FIG. 20 shows the driving history of the drivers a to f in a table format. Further, FIG. 20 shows that the driver model of the driver y is constructed from the driving history of the driver y shown in FIG. 16 and the driving history of the drivers c to e having a high degree of similarity.

The individually adaptive driver model is constructed by calculating the average of each frequency in the extracted driving history of each driver.

FIG. 21 is a diagram showing an example of the constructed individually adaptive driver model. In the driving history of the driver y shown in FIG. 16 and the driving history of the drivers c to e shown in FIG. 20, the average frequency of each behavior is derived for each driving environment. In this way, the individually adaptive driver model for the driver y is constructed with the average frequency of behavior corresponding to each driving environment.

Here, how to use the constructed individually adaptive driver model will be described with an example.

The driver model of the driver y as shown in FIG. 21 is stored in advance in the storage unit 8 of the vehicle 1. Further, the vehicle control unit 7 stores the travel history when the driver y has driven in the past in the storage unit 8. The detection of the driver y is executed by a camera or the like (not shown) installed in the vehicle.

Then, in the actual automatic driving, the vehicle control unit 7 has the most frequent behavior in each driving environment of the driver model of the driver y, which is the behavior most suitable for the driver y, that is, the first behavior. Judge that there is.

In this way, by constructing a driver model for each driver from the driving history of a plurality of drivers in advance, it is possible to notify the behavior more suitable for the driver.

For example, as shown in FIG. 16, in the driving history of the driver y, the frequency of behavior with respect to the driving environment of "there is a low-speed vehicle in front" is 0, that is, in the driving environment where the driver is "there is a low-speed vehicle in front", " Even when the behaviors of "following", "passing", and "changing lanes" have never been selected, the vehicle control unit 7 is based on the driver model shown in FIG. "Changing lane" can be determined as the first behavior.

Next, a case where the driving characteristics (driving habits) of the driver are acquired and automatic driving is performed according to the driver's taste will be described. In general, the actual operation (for example, the magnitude of acceleration and deceleration, or the amount of operation of the steering wheel) for one behavior (for example, changing lanes) differs from driver to driver. Therefore, by performing automatic driving according to the driver's taste, the driver can drive more comfortably.

In the following description, a case where the driving characteristics of the driver are acquired during manual driving and the acquired driving characteristics are reflected in the automatic driving will be described, but the present invention is not limited to this.

The vehicle control unit 7 extracts a feature amount indicating the driving characteristics of the driver from the operation contents of each part of the vehicle 1 of the driver and stores it in the storage unit 8. Here, the feature amount includes, for example, a feature amount related to speed, a feature amount related to steering, a feature amount related to operation timing, a feature amount related to outside sensing, a feature amount related to in-vehicle sensing, and the like.

The feature amount related to the speed includes, for example, the speed, acceleration, deceleration, etc. of the vehicle, and these feature amounts are acquired from the speed sensor or the like of the vehicle.

The feature amounts related to the steering include, for example, the steering angle, the angular speed, each acceleration, and the like, and these feature amounts are acquired from the steering wheel 5.

The feature amounts related to the operation timing include, for example, the operation timing of the brake, the accelerator, the winker lever, and the steering wheel, and these feature amounts are obtained from the brake pedal 2, the accelerator pedal 3, the winker lever 4, and the steering wheel 5, respectively. Will be done.

The feature amounts related to the external sensing include, for example, the inter-vehicle distance to the vehicles existing in the front, the side, and the rear, and these feature amounts are acquired from the sensor 62.

The feature amount related to the in-vehicle sensing is, for example, personal recognition information indicating who the driver is and who the passenger is, and these feature amounts are acquired from a camera or the like installed in the vehicle. To.

For example, when the driver manually changes lanes, the vehicle control unit 7 detects that the driver has manually changed lanes. The detection method detects by analyzing the operation time series data acquired from CAN information or the like by preliminarily creating a rule for the operation time series pattern of lane change. At that time, the vehicle control unit 7 acquires the above-mentioned feature amount. The vehicle control unit 7 stores the feature amount in the storage unit 8 for each driver and builds a driving characteristic model.

The vehicle control unit 7 may build the above-mentioned driver model based on the feature amount for each driver. That is, the vehicle control unit 7 extracts the feature amount related to speed, the feature amount related to steering, the feature amount related to the operation timing, the feature amount related to the outside sensing, and the feature amount related to the in-vehicle sensing, and stores them in the storage unit 8. Then, based on the feature amount stored in the storage unit 8, a driver model may be constructed in which the tendency of the operation by the driver for each driving environment and the information of the frequency of each operation are associated with each other.

FIG. 22 is a diagram showing an example of an operation characteristic model. In FIG. 22, the feature amount is shown in a table format for each driver. Further, FIG. 22 shows the number of times each behavior has been selected in the past for each driver. Although only a part of the feature amount is described, any one or all of the above may be described.

The feature amount shown in FIG. 22 will be described in detail. The speed value is a value that indicates the actual speed step by step. The values for the steering wheel, brake, and accelerator are numerical values that indicate the amount of operation in stages. These numerical values are obtained, for example, by calculating the average value of the speed, steering wheel, brake, and accelerator operation amount within a predetermined period in the past, and expressing the average value stepwise.

For example, in FIG. 22, when the driver x changes lanes without a passenger, the speed level is 8, and the steering wheel, brake, and accelerator operation levels are 4, 6, and 8, respectively. is there.

During automatic driving, the vehicle control unit 7 determines the driver, the behavior, and the driving corresponding to the passenger depending on who the driver is, what kind of behavior is executed, and who the passenger is. The characteristic model is selected from the driving characteristic models shown in FIG.

Then, the vehicle control unit 7 drives the vehicle 1 at a speed corresponding to the selected driving characteristic model, and controls the vehicle 1 by a combination of the operation amount of the steering wheel, the brake, the accelerator, and the timing thereof. As a result, automatic driving can be performed according to the driver's preference. Information on the driving characteristic model as shown in FIG. 22 can be notified to the notification unit 92.

FIG. 23 is a diagram illustrating the display of the notification unit 92 in the fourth embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 23 is a display for the first example of the driving environment shown in FIG.

FIG. 23A is a display of the notification unit 92 in a state where the vehicle is in a state of normal traveling without changing lanes or accelerating or decelerating the vehicle. In FIG. 23 (a), a symbol 231 indicating that the driving characteristic of the driver is a driving characteristic of "more deceleration" and a symbol 232 indicating that the driver is currently in automatic driving are shown.

The vehicle control unit 7 determines, for example, the driving characteristics of the driver based on the number of times each behavior included in the driving characteristics model shown in FIG. 22 has been selected in the past. In this case, the vehicle control unit 7 displays, for example, a display including the symbol 231 as shown in FIG. It is displayed on the notification unit 92.

Then, when the vehicle control unit 7 determines that the driving environment is the driving environment of the first example shown in FIG. 5, the vehicle control unit 7 has a driving characteristic in which the driver's driving characteristic is "more deceleration". Based on the above, the first behavior is determined to be "deceleration", and the notification unit 92 is made to execute the display of FIG. 23 (b).

In FIG. 23 (b), the symbol 233 indicating the first behavior "deceleration" is shown in the first aspect (for example, the first color). Further, a symbol 234 indicating "acceleration", which is the second behavior, and a symbol 235 indicating "lane change", which is the second behavior, are shown.

When the driver changes the behavior to "acceleration" by the operation as described in the first embodiment, the vehicle control unit 7 causes the notification unit 92 to execute the display shown in FIG. 23 (c).

In FIG. 23 (c), the symbol 234'indicating the selected behavior "acceleration" is shown in the first aspect. Further, the symbol 233'is displayed by replacing the symbol 233, which was displayed as the first behavior in FIG. 23 (b), with the symbol 234.

After that, the vehicle control unit 7 causes the notification unit 92 to display the display shown in FIG. 23 (d) after a second predetermined time has elapsed after causing the notification unit 92 to execute the display shown in FIG. 23 (a). .. Here, in FIG. 15D, as the next behavior, the symbol 234'indicating “acceleration” selected by the driver is displayed in the second aspect.

When the vehicle control unit 7 determines that the next behavior to be taken is "acceleration", the vehicle control unit 7 reads out the feature quantities corresponding to the behavior of "acceleration" included in the driving characteristic model, and performs "acceleration" reflecting those feature quantities. The vehicle 1 is controlled as it does.

FIG. 24 is a diagram illustrating the display of the notification unit 92 in the fourth embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 24 is a display for the second example of the driving environment shown in FIG. In FIG. 24, the same reference numerals as those in FIG. 23 are assigned to the configurations common to those in FIG. 23, and detailed description thereof will be omitted. FIG. 24 is a diagram in which the symbol 235 indicating “lane change” has been deleted from FIG. 23.

As described above, in the second example (FIG. 7), unlike the first example (FIG. 5), another vehicle is traveling to the right of the vehicle 1, so that the lane cannot be changed. Therefore, in FIGS. 24 (b) and 24 (c), "lane change" is not displayed. Further, in the example of FIG. 24 (c), since "acceleration" was selected as in the case of FIG. 23 (c), the vehicle control unit 7 is included in the driving characteristic model as in FIG. 23. The vehicle 1 is controlled so as to read out the feature amounts corresponding to the behavior of "" and perform "acceleration" reflecting those feature amounts.

FIG. 25 is a diagram illustrating the display of the notification unit 92 in the fourth embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 25 is a display for the third example of the driving environment shown in FIG.

FIG. 25 (a) is the same as FIG. 23 (a). When the vehicle control unit 7 determines that the driving environment is the third example shown in FIG. 8, the vehicle control unit 7 is based on the driving characteristic of the driver being "more deceleration". , The first behavior is determined to be "deceleration", and the notification unit 92 is made to execute the display of FIG. 25 (b).

In FIG. 25 (b), the symbol 251 indicating "deceleration", which is the first behavior, is shown in the first aspect (for example, the first color). Further, a symbol 252 indicating "passing", which is the second behavior, and a symbol 253 indicating "lane change", which is the second behavior, are shown.

When the driver changes the behavior to "passing" by the operation as described in the first embodiment, the vehicle control unit 7 causes the notification unit 92 to execute the display shown in FIG. 25 (c).

In FIG. 25 (c), the symbol 252'indicating the selected behavior of "passing" is shown in the first aspect. Further, the symbol 251'is displayed in which the symbol 251 displayed as the first behavior in FIG. 25 (b) is replaced with the symbol 252.

After that, the vehicle control unit 7 causes the notification unit 92 to display the display shown in FIG. 25 (d) after a second predetermined time has elapsed after causing the notification unit 92 to execute the display shown in FIG. 25 (a). .. Here, in FIG. 15 (d), as the next behavior, the symbol 252'indicating the "passing" selected by the driver is displayed in the second mode.

When the vehicle control unit 7 determines that the next behavior to be taken is "passing", the vehicle control unit 7 reads out the feature quantities corresponding to the "passing" behavior included in the driving characteristic model and performs "acceleration" reflecting those feature quantities. The vehicle 1 is controlled as it does.

Next, an example of display when the driving characteristic of the driver is not the driving characteristic of "many deceleration" will be described.

FIG. 26 is a diagram illustrating the display of the notification unit 92 in the fourth embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 26 is a display for the first example of the driving environment shown in FIG. Note that FIG. 26A shows an example in which the driving characteristic of the driver is "more acceleration", and FIG. 26B shows driving in which the driving characteristic of the driver is "many lane changes". An example of a characteristic is shown.

FIG. 26 (a) shows a symbol 261 indicating that the driver's driving characteristics are "more acceleration" driving characteristics. Further, the symbol 262 indicating "acceleration", which is the first behavior, is shown in the first aspect (for example, the first color). Further, a symbol 263 indicating the second behavior "lane change" and a symbol 264 indicating the second behavior "deceleration" are shown.

For example, the vehicle control unit 7 has a symbol 261 as shown in FIG. 26 (a) for a driver who has many “acceleration” in the past (so-called “acceleration” behavior has been selected many times in the past) based on driving characteristics. The notification unit 92 is made to execute the display including. Further, the vehicle control unit 7 determines that the first behavior is "acceleration" based on the driving characteristic of the driver being "a lot of acceleration", and displays the display in FIG. 26A as a notification unit. Let 92 do it.

FIG. 26B shows a symbol 265 indicating that the driving characteristic of the driver is a driving characteristic of "many lane changes". Further, the symbol 266 indicating "lane change", which is the first behavior, is shown in the first aspect (for example, the first color). Further, a symbol 267 indicating "lane change", which is the second behavior, and a symbol 268 indicating "deceleration", which is the second behavior, are shown.

For example, the vehicle control unit 7 is as shown in FIG. 26 (b) for a driver who has many “lane changes” in the past (so-called “lane change” behavior has been selected many times in the past) due to driving characteristics. The notification unit 92 is made to execute the display including the symbol 265. The vehicle control unit 7 determines that the first behavior is "lane change" based on the driver's driving characteristic of "many lane changes", and displays the display in FIG. 26B as a notification unit. Let 92 do it.

Although the above description uses only the driving characteristic model, the driver model may be added, and in FIGS. 23, 25, and 26, the symbol 231 is the type of the driver model selected from the operation history of the driver. May be indicated. For example, with respect to the first example of the driving environment shown in FIG. 5, the driver model applied to the driver who often selects "deceleration" is caused to cause the notification unit 92 to execute a display including the symbol 231 as shown in FIG. The behavior of 1 is determined to be "deceleration". In the driver model applied to the driver who often selects "acceleration", the notification unit 92 is made to execute a display including the symbol 261 as shown in FIG. 26A, and the first behavior is determined to be "acceleration". In the driver model applied to the driver who often selects "lane change", the notification unit 92 is made to execute a display including the symbol 261 as shown in FIG. 26A, and the first behavior is determined to be "lane change".

According to the present embodiment described above, when determining the future behavior of the vehicle, the driver's past driving history can be learned and the result can be reflected in the determination of the future behavior. Further, when the vehicle control unit controls the vehicle, the driving characteristics (driving preference) of the driver can be learned and reflected in the control of the vehicle.

As a result, automatic driving can be controlled at the timing or amount of operation that the driver or occupant prefers, and unnecessary operation intervention by the driver during automatic driving does not deviate from the feeling when the driver actually drives manually. Can be suppressed.

In the present invention, a server device such as a cloud server may be made to execute a function similar to the function executed by the vehicle control unit 7. Further, the storage unit 8 may be in a server device such as a cloud server instead of the vehicle 1. Alternatively, the storage unit 8 may store the already constructed driver model, and the vehicle control unit 7 may determine the behavior by referring to the driver model stored in the storage unit 8.

As described above, in the fourth embodiment, the vehicle control unit 7 acquires the feature amount information indicating the driving characteristics of the driver, the storage unit 8 stores the feature amount information, and the vehicle control unit 7 stores the feature amount information. Based on the feature amount information stored in the part 8, it was decided to construct a driver model showing the tendency of the behavior of the vehicle selected by the driver at the frequency of each selected behavior for each driving environment of the vehicle.

Further, the vehicle control unit 7 determines a group of drivers who select similar behaviors from a plurality of drivers, and constructs a driver model for each group and each driving environment of the vehicle.

Further, the vehicle control unit 7 calculates the average value of the frequency of the behavior selected by each driver for each group of drivers performing similar operations, and calculates the tendency of the behavior of the vehicle selected by the driver. It was decided to build a driver model indicated by a value for each driving environment of the vehicle.

Further, the vehicle control unit 7 of the vehicle selected by the specific driver is based on the behavior of the vehicle selected by another driver, which tends to be similar to the behavior of the vehicle selected by the specific driver. It was decided to construct a driver model showing the tendency of the behavior by the frequency of each selected behavior for each driving environment of the vehicle.

As described above, the vehicle control unit 7 can construct a driver model more suitable for the driving tendency of the driver, and can perform more appropriate automatic driving for the driver based on the constructed driver model.

(Modification example of driver model)
The driver model described above is a model of the tendency of the driver's operation (behavior) for each driving environment based on the information of the frequency of each operation, but the present invention is not limited to this. ..

For example, the driver model is constructed based on a driving history in which an environmental parameter indicating a driving environment (that is, a situation) driven in the past is associated with an operation (behavior) actually selected by the driver in the driving environment. You may. By incorporating the environmental parameters into the driver model, it is possible to determine the options without having to separately detect and classify the driving environment and input (store) the classification results into the driver model. Specifically, by acquiring the difference in driving environment as shown in FIGS. 23 and 24 as an environmental parameter and directly inputting (memorizing) it into the driver model, "acceleration", "deceleration", and "lane change" are shown in FIG. Is an option, and in FIG. 24, “acceleration” and “deceleration” are options. The case of constructing such a driver model will be described below. The driver model described below may be rephrased as a situation database.

Here, the running history for constructing the driver model in this modification will be described. FIG. 27 is a diagram showing an example of a traveling history. FIG. 27 shows a driving history in which an environmental parameter indicating a driving environment in which the vehicle driven by the driver x has traveled in the past is associated with an operation (behavior) actually selected by the driver in the driving environment. Has been done.

The environmental parameters of the traveling history (a) to (c) shown in FIG. 27 are, for example, the vehicle to the driver as shown in FIGS. 8 (b), 5 (b), and 7 (b), respectively. It shows the driving environment when the behavior of is presented. The environmental parameters of this travel history are obtained from the sensing information and the infrastructure information.

The sensing information is information detected by a sensor, radar, or the like possessed by the vehicle. Infrastructure information includes GPS information, map information, information acquired by road-to-vehicle communication, and the like.

For example, the environmental parameters of the traveling history shown in FIG. 27 include "information on the own vehicle", "information on the preceding vehicle" indicating information on the vehicle traveling in front of the lane in which the own vehicle a travels, and the lane in which the own vehicle travels. "Side lane information" that shows the information of the side lane, "Merge lane information" that shows the information of the merging lane when there is a merging lane at the position where the own vehicle travels, the position of the own vehicle and its Includes "location information" that indicates surrounding information. In addition, information on vehicles behind may be included. In that case, the relative speed between the rear vehicle and the own vehicle, the inter-vehicle distance, the rate of change of the inter-vehicle distance, and the like may be used. In addition, information on the existence of the vehicle may be included.

For example, the "own vehicle information" includes information on the speed Va of the own vehicle. The "preceding vehicle information" includes information on the relative speed Vba of the preceding vehicle with respect to the own vehicle, the inter-vehicle distance DRba between the preceding vehicle and the own vehicle, and the rate of change RSb of the size of the preceding vehicle.

Here, the speed Va of the own vehicle is detected by the speed sensor of the own vehicle. The relative speed Vba and the inter-vehicle distance DRba are detected by a sensor, radar, or the like. The size change rate RSb is calculated by the relational expression RSb = -Vba / DRba.

The "side lane information" includes information on the side rear vehicle c traveling behind the own vehicle in the side lane, information on the side front vehicle d traveling ahead of the own vehicle in the side lane, and information on the own vehicle. Includes information on the remaining side lane length DRda.

The information on the side-rear vehicle includes information on the relative speed Vca of the side-rear vehicle with respect to the own vehicle, the inter-vehicle distance Dca between the side-rear vehicle and the own vehicle, and the rate of change Rca of the inter-vehicle distance. The head-to-head distance Dca between the side-rear vehicle and the own vehicle is the tip (head) of the own vehicle and the tip (head) of the side-rear vehicle measured in the direction along the traveling direction of the own vehicle (and the side-rear vehicle). The distance to the car head). The inter-vehicle distance may be calculated from the inter-vehicle distance and the vehicle length. Further, the inter-vehicle distance may be replaced with the inter-vehicle distance.

Here, the relative speed Vca and the inter-vehicle distance Dca are detected by a sensor, radar, or the like. The rate of change Rca of the inter-vehicle distance is calculated by the relational expression Rca = Vca / Dca.

Further, the information on the side-front vehicle includes information on the relative speed Vda of the side-front vehicle with respect to the own vehicle, the head-to-head distance Dda between the side-front vehicle and the own vehicle, and the change rate Rda of the side-front vehicle. The head-to-head distance Dda between the side-front vehicle and the own vehicle is measured along the traveling direction of the own vehicle (and the side-front vehicle) with respect to the tip (head) of the own vehicle and the tip (head) of the front-side vehicle. The distance between.

The relative speed Vda and the inter-vehicle distance Dda are detected by a sensor, radar, or the like. Further, the rate of change Rda of the inter-vehicle distance is calculated by the relational expression Rda = Vda / Dda.

The remaining side lane length DRda of the own vehicle is a parameter indicating the high possibility of changing lanes to the side lane. Specifically, the remaining lateral lane length DRda of the own vehicle is the front end (head) of the own vehicle and the rear end of the front side vehicle measured in the direction along the traveling direction of the own vehicle (and the side front vehicle). When the distance between the vehicle and the preceding vehicle is longer than the inter-vehicle distance DRba between the preceding vehicle and the own vehicle, it becomes the distance between the front end (head) of the own vehicle and the rear end of the front side vehicle, and the tip of the own vehicle ( When the distance between the vehicle head) and the rear end of the vehicle in front of the side is shorter than DRba, it becomes DRba. The remaining lateral lane length DRda of the own vehicle is detected by a sensor, radar, or the like.

The "merging lane information" includes information on the relative speed Vma of the merging vehicle with respect to the own vehicle, the head-to-head distance Dma between the merging vehicle and the own vehicle, and the rate of change Rma of the head-to-head distance. Here, the head-to-head distance Dma between the merging vehicle and the merging vehicle is measured in the direction along the traveling direction of the own vehicle (and the merging vehicle). ) Is the distance between.

The relative speed Vma and the inter-vehicle distance Dma are detected by a sensor, radar, or the like. The rate of change Rma of the inter-vehicle distance is calculated by the relational expression Rma = Vma / Dma.

In the example of the traveling history shown in FIG. 27, the numerical values of the speed, the distance, and the rate of change described above are classified into a plurality of levels, and the numerical values indicating the classified levels are stored. The numerical values of speed, distance, and rate of change may be stored as they are without being classified into levels.

The position information is "position information of own vehicle", "number of lanes", "lane of own vehicle", "distance to start / end point of merging section", "distance to start / end point of branch section". Includes information such as "distance to the start / end point of the construction section", "distance to the start / end point of the lane reduction section", and "distance to the point where the traffic accident occurred". FIG. 27 shows information of “the traveling lane of the own vehicle” (the traveling lane of FIG. 27) and “the distance to the start / end point of the merging section” as examples of the position information.

For example, in the "position information of own vehicle" column, numerical information indicating latitude / longitude obtained by GPS is stored. In the "Number of driving lanes" column, the number of lanes on the road on which the vehicle is traveling is stored. Numerical information indicating the position of the lane in which the vehicle is traveling is stored in the column of "the traveling lane of the own vehicle". In the "distance to the start / end point of the merging section", the distance to the start / end point of the merging section is predetermined when the start / end point of the merging section exists within a predetermined distance. It is classified into multiple levels, and the numerical value of the classified level is stored. If there is no start / end point of the merging section within a predetermined distance, "0" is stored in the "distance to the start / end point of the merging section".

In the "distance to the start / end point of the branch section", the distance to the start / end point of the branch section is predetermined when the start / end point of the branch section exists within a predetermined distance. It is classified into multiple levels, and the numerical value of the classified level is stored. If the start / end point of the branch section does not exist within the predetermined distance, "0" is stored in the "distance to the start / end point of the branch section". In the "Distance to construction section start / end point" column, if there is a construction section start / end point within a predetermined distance, the distance to the construction section start / end point is determined in advance at multiple levels. It is classified into, and the numerical value of the classified level is stored. If the construction section start / end point does not exist within the predetermined distance, "0" is stored in the "distance to the construction section start / end point" column.

In the "Distance to the start / end point of the lane reduction section", the distance to the start / end point of the lane reduction section is predetermined when the start / end point of the lane reduction section exists within a predetermined distance. It is classified into multiple levels, and the numerical value of the classified level is stored. If there is no start / end point of the lane reduction section within a predetermined distance, "0" is stored in the "distance to the start / end point of the lane reduction section".

In the "distance to the traffic accident occurrence point" column, when the traffic accident occurrence point exists within a predetermined distance, the distance to the traffic accident occurrence point is classified into a plurality of predetermined levels and classified. The numerical value of the level is stored. If the traffic accident occurrence point does not exist within the predetermined distance, "0" is stored in the "distance to the traffic accident occurrence point" column.

Further, the position information may include information on which lane of all lanes on the road on which the own vehicle is traveling is a merging lane, a branch lane, a construction lane, a reduced lane, or an accident lane.

The traveling history shown in FIG. 27 is merely an example, and the present invention is not limited thereto. For example, when the information on the side lane is information on the right lane, the travel history may further include "information on the left lane" on the opposite side.

"Left lane information" includes information on the left rear vehicle traveling behind the own vehicle in the left lane, information on the left front vehicle traveling ahead of the own vehicle in the left lane, and the remaining left side of the own vehicle. Includes information on lane length DRda.

The information on the left rear vehicle includes information on the relative speed Vfa of the left rear vehicle with respect to the own vehicle, the inter-vehicle distance Dfa between the left rear vehicle and the own vehicle, and the change rate Rfa of the inter-vehicle distance. The head-to-head distance Dfa between the left rear vehicle and the own vehicle is the tip (head) of the own vehicle and the tip (front) of the left rear vehicle measured in the direction along the traveling direction of the own vehicle (and the left rear vehicle). The distance to the car head).

Here, the relative speed Vfa and the inter-vehicle distance Dfa are detected by a sensor, radar, or the like. Further, the rate of change Rfa of the inter-vehicle distance is calculated by the relational expression Rfa = Vfa / Dfa.

Further, the information on the left front vehicle includes information on the relative speed Vga of the left front vehicle with respect to the own vehicle, the inter-vehicle distance Dga between the left front vehicle and the own vehicle, and the change rate Rga of the inter-vehicle distance. The head-to-head distance Dga between the left front vehicle and the own vehicle is measured along the traveling direction of the own vehicle (and the left front vehicle) with the tip (head) of the own vehicle and the tip (head) of the left front vehicle. The distance between.

Here, the relative speed Vga and the inter-vehicle distance Dga are detected by a sensor, radar, or the like. Further, the rate of change Rga of the inter-vehicle distance is calculated by the relational expression Rga = Vga / Dga.

In addition, although the case where the traffic of the vehicle is the left-hand traffic is described here, the same processing can be performed even in the case of the right-hand traffic by reversing the left and right.

Further, the traveling history shown in FIG. 27 may include "information on the rear vehicle" indicating information on the rear vehicle traveling behind the own vehicle in the traveling lane.

The information on the rear vehicle includes information on the relative speed Via of the rear vehicle with respect to the own vehicle, the head-to-head distance Dea between the rear vehicle and the own vehicle, and the change rate Rea of the head-to-head distance. The head-to-head distance Dea between the rear vehicle and the own vehicle is the tip (head) of the own vehicle and the tip (head) of the rear vehicle measured in the direction along the traveling direction of the own vehicle (and the rear vehicle). The distance between.

Here, the relative speed Via and the inter-vehicle distance Dea are detected by a sensor, radar, or the like. The rate of change Rea of the inter-vehicle distance is calculated by the relational expression Rea = Via / Dea.

If the inter-vehicle distance cannot be measured because it is hidden behind a moving body, an approximate value obtained by adding a predetermined vehicle length to the measurable inter-vehicle distance or the inter-vehicle distance may be used as an alternative to the inter-vehicle distance. It may be calculated by adding the vehicle length for each recognized vehicle type to the distance. Further, regardless of whether the inter-vehicle distance can be measured or not, as an alternative to the inter-vehicle distance, an approximate value obtained by adding a predetermined vehicle length to the measurable inter-vehicle distance or the inter-vehicle distance may be used, or the inter-vehicle distance may be used. It may be calculated by adding the vehicle length for each recognized vehicle type.

The travel history may include various other information about the vehicle's travel environment. For example, the travel history may include information on the size or type of the preceding vehicle, the side vehicle, the merging vehicle, or the position relative to the own vehicle. For example, the camera sensor may recognize the type of vehicle approaching from behind, and may include information indicating that the vehicle is an emergency vehicle when the vehicle is an emergency vehicle. As a result, it is possible to inform the information that the information is for responding to an emergency vehicle. Alternatively, as described with reference to FIG. 22, the travel history may include numerical values indicating the steering wheel, brake, accelerator operation amount stepwise, passenger information, and the like.

Further, as the driving history of the driver, the behaviors selected during the automatic driving may be aggregated, or the behaviors actually performed by the driver during the manual driving may be aggregated. As a result, it is possible to collect the driving history according to the driving state such as automatic driving or manual driving.

Further, in the example of FIG. 27, the environmental parameter included in the driving history indicates the driving environment when the behavior of the vehicle is presented to the driver, but the driving environment when the driver selects the behavior. It may indicate. Alternatively, the driving history may include both an environmental parameter indicating the driving environment when the behavior of the vehicle is presented to the driver and an environmental parameter indicating the driving environment when the driver selects the behavior. ..

Further, the vehicle control unit 7 is shown in FIGS. 2 (a), 5 (a), 6 (a), 7 (a), 8 (a), 9 (a), and 10 (a). Information on highly contributing environmental parameters that contributed to the selection of the first behavior and the second behavior as a result of generating the bird's-eye view shown or the display shown in FIG. 14 (c), and At least one of the information (for example, an icon) related to the environmental parameter may be generated as the notification information, and the generated notification information may be displayed on the bird's-eye view to notify the notification unit 92 of the notification information.

In this case, for example, if the contribution of the inter-vehicle distance DRba between the preceding vehicle and the own vehicle or the rate of change RSb of the size of the preceding vehicle is high, the vehicle control unit 7 has brightness between the preceding vehicle and the own vehicle in the bird's-eye view. The area where the number is raised or the color is changed may be displayed, and the notification information may be notified to the notification unit 92.

Further, the vehicle control unit 7 may display an icon indicating that the inter-vehicle distance DRba or the rate of change RSb has a high contribution in the region between the preceding vehicle and the own vehicle as notification information. Further, the vehicle control unit 7 causes the notification unit 92 to draw a line segment connecting the preceding vehicle and the own vehicle as notification information on the bird's-eye view, or the notification information for the line segment connecting all the peripheral vehicles and the own vehicle. The line segment connecting the preceding vehicle and the own vehicle may be emphasized on the bird's-eye view.

Further, the vehicle control unit 7 increases the brightness of the notification unit 92 between the preceding vehicle and the own vehicle in the viewpoint image seen by the driver instead of the bird's-eye view, or increases the brightness of the surrounding area. AR (Augmented Reality) display may be realized by displaying regions in different colors as broadcast information. Further, the vehicle control unit 7 may display an icon indicating an environmental parameter having a high degree of contribution in the region between the preceding vehicle and the own vehicle in the viewpoint image as notification information in the notification unit 92 in AR.

Further, the vehicle control unit 7 displays the line segment connecting the preceding vehicle and the own vehicle as notification information in the viewpoint image, or displays the line segment connecting all the surrounding vehicles and the own vehicle in the viewpoint image. May be displayed in AR as notification information to emphasize the line segment connecting the preceding vehicle and the own vehicle.

The method for notifying an environmental parameter having a high degree of contribution or information related to the environmental parameter is not limited to the above. For example, the vehicle control unit 7 may generate an image highlighting the preceding vehicle, which is the target of the environmental parameter having a high degree of contribution, as the notification information and display it on the notification unit 92.

Further, the vehicle control unit 7 generates information indicating the direction of the preceding vehicle or the like that is the target of the environmental parameter having a high contribution in the bird's-eye view or the AR display as notification information, and generates the information as the notification information of the own vehicle or the periphery of the own vehicle. It may be displayed in.

Further, for example, the vehicle control unit 7 lowers the display brightness of the preceding vehicle or the like that is the target of the environmental parameter having a low contribution, instead of notifying the information of the environmental parameter having a high contribution or the information related to the environmental parameter. Information on environmental parameters having a high degree of contribution or information related to the environmental parameters may be generated as notification information and displayed on the notification unit 92.

Next, the construction of a driver model based on the driving history of the driver will be described. The driver model includes a clustering type that clusters and constructs the driving history of a plurality of drivers, and a driver model of the driver x from a plurality of driving histories similar to the driving history of a specific driver (for example, the driver x). There is an individual adaptive type that builds.

First, the clustering type will be described. In the method of constructing the clustering type driver model, the driving history of the driver as shown in FIG. 27 is aggregated in advance for each driver. Then, a plurality of drivers having a high degree of similarity in driving history, that is, a plurality of drivers having similar driving operation tendencies are grouped to construct a driver model.

The similarity of the driving history is, for example, the correlation of the vector having the numerical value of the environmental parameter and the numerical value of the behavior as elements when the behavior in the driving history of the driver a and the driver b is quantified based on a predetermined rule. It can be determined from the value. In this case, for example, when the correlation value calculated from the driving history of the driver a and the driver b is higher than the predetermined value, the driving history of the driver a and the driver b is grouped. The calculation of similarity is not limited to this.

Next, the individual adaptation type will be described. The method of constructing the individually adaptive driver model is the same as in the case of the clustering type, in which the driving histories of a plurality of drivers as shown in FIG. 27 are aggregated in advance. Here, the difference from the clustering type is that a driver model is constructed for each driver. For example, when constructing a driver model for the driver y, the driving history of the driver y is compared with the driving history of a plurality of other drivers, and the driving history of a plurality of drivers having a high degree of similarity is extracted. .. Then, an individually adaptive driver model of the driver y is constructed from the driving histories of the extracted plurality of drivers.

The driver model (situation database) based on the driving history shown in FIG. 27 is not limited to the clustering type or the individual adaptation type, and may be configured to include, for example, the driving history of all drivers.

Here, how to use the constructed driver model will be described with an example. In the following example, a case where a driver model that aggregates the driving histories of the four drivers a to d is used for the driver x will be described. The driver model is constructed by the vehicle control unit 7.

FIG. 28 is a diagram showing how to use the driver model in this modification. FIG. 28A is an environmental parameter showing the current driving environment of the vehicle driven by the driver x. FIG. 28B is an example of a driver model for the driver x.

As shown in FIG. 28A, the behavior (operation) with respect to the environmental parameter indicating the current driving environment is blank. The vehicle control unit 7 acquires the environmental parameters at predetermined intervals, uses any of the environmental parameters as a trigger, and determines the next behavior from the driver model shown in FIG. 28 (b).

As a trigger, for example, when the distance to the start point of the merging section becomes less than a predetermined distance, or when the relative speed with the preceding vehicle becomes less than a predetermined value, it is necessary to change the operation of the vehicle. An environmental parameter indicating the case may be used as a trigger.

The vehicle control unit 7 compares the environmental parameters shown in FIG. 28 (a) with the environmental parameters of the driving history of each of the driver models shown in FIG. 28 (b), and the behavior associated with the most similar environmental parameters. Is determined to be the first behavior. In addition, some behaviors associated with other similar environmental parameters are determined to be second behaviors.

Whether or not the environmental parameters are similar can be determined from the correlation value of the vector having the numerical value of the environmental parameter as an element. For example, when the correlation value calculated from the vector having the numerical value of the environmental parameter shown in FIG. 28 (a) as an element and the vector having the numerical value of the environmental parameter shown in FIG. 28 (b) as an element is higher than the predetermined value. , It is determined that these environmental parameters are similar. The method for determining whether or not the environmental parameters are similar is not limited to this.

For example, here we decided to determine the behavior based on the similarity of the environmental parameters, but first create a group with high similarity of the environmental parameters, collect the statistics of the environmental parameters in that group, and determine the behavior from the statistical data. You may decide.

In this way, by constructing a driver model for each driver from the driving history of a plurality of drivers in advance, it is possible to notify the behavior more suitable for the driver. In order to register a safer driving history in the database, the storage unit 8 stores information indicating a safe driving standard, and the vehicle control unit 7 determines whether or not the driving history satisfies this standard. Further, the vehicle control unit 7 may register the traveling history satisfying this standard in the database and may not register the traveling history not satisfying this standard in the database.

Further, by associating the parameters indicating the driving environment with the behavior, the vehicle control unit 7 accurately determines the next behavior without determining the specific driving environment, that is, without labeling the driving environment. Can be determined.

The driver model (situation database) may be constructed from a driving history in which a behavior selected by the driver during automatic driving is associated with an environmental parameter indicating a driving environment when the behavior is presented. Alternatively, the driver model (situation database) may be constructed from a driving history in which the behavior selected by the driver during automatic driving and the environmental parameters indicating the driving environment when the vehicle performs the behavior are associated with each other.

When the environmental parameter indicates the driving environment when the vehicle performs the behavior selected by the driver, the driver predicts the environmental parameter indicating the future driving environment from the environmental parameter indicating the current driving environment and the driver. Among the environmental parameters indicating the driving environment when the vehicle performs the behavior selected by, the behavior associated with the environmental parameter most similar to the predicted environmental parameter is the first behavior, and the other similar environment. Some behaviors associated with the parameters may be determined to be the second behavior.

The above prediction is made, for example, by extrapolating the environmental parameters at a future time point from the environmental parameters indicating the driving environment at the present time and the time point before the present time.

Alternatively, the driver model (situation database) is a driving history in which the behavior selected by the driver during automatic driving is associated with an environmental parameter indicating the driving environment when the behavior is presented, and the driver during automatic driving. It may be constructed from both the driving history in which the behavior selected by is associated with the environmental parameter indicating the driving environment when the vehicle performs the behavior.

In this case, for example, the traveling histories of both are stored in the format shown in FIG. 28 (b), and the vehicle control unit 7 determines the next behavior from them. Here, the vehicle control unit 7 sets a priority between the two, and associates, for example, a behavior selected by the driver during automatic driving with an environmental parameter indicating a driving environment when the vehicle performs the behavior. The next behavior may be preferentially determined from the travel history.

In the present invention, a server device such as a cloud server may be made to execute a function similar to the function executed by the vehicle control unit 7. In particular, since the storage unit 8 becomes a huge amount of data as the travel history is accumulated, it may be in a server device such as a cloud server instead of the vehicle 1. Alternatively, the storage unit 8 may store the already constructed driver model, and the vehicle control unit 7 may determine the behavior by referring to the driver model stored in the storage unit 8.

In a configuration in which the storage unit 8 is provided in the cloud server, it is desirable that a cache is provided in case the storage unit 8 cannot be accessed due to a decrease in communication speed, communication interruption, or the like.

FIG. 29 is a block diagram showing an example of cache arrangement. The vehicle control unit 7 causes the storage unit 8 to store the traveling history through the communication unit 291 and causes the cache 292 to hold a part of the driver model (situation database) stored in the storage unit 8 through the communication unit 291.

The vehicle control unit 7 accesses the driver model of the cache 292. As a method of creating a cache at this time, a method of limiting by the presence or absence of environmental parameters, a method of using position information, a method of processing data, and the like can be considered. Each will be described below.

First, a method of limiting by the presence or absence of environmental parameters will be described. In order to extract similar situations by comparing the surrounding conditions, it is possible if there are sufficient driving environments (situations) in which only the same environmental parameters exist. Therefore, the vehicle control unit 7 extracts the traveling environment having only the same environmental parameters from the traveling environment stored in the storage unit 8, sorts them, and holds them in the cache 292.

Here, the vehicle control unit 7 updates the primary cache at the timing when the environmental parameter obtained from the detected situation is changed. By doing so, the vehicle control unit 7 can extract a similar surrounding situation even if the communication speed decreases. The environmental parameters for determining whether or not there is a change may be all the environmental parameters mentioned above or some environmental parameters.

Further, since this environmental parameter changes from moment to moment, a primary cache and a secondary cache may be prepared in the cache 292. For example, the vehicle control unit 7 holds a traveling environment having the same environmental parameters in the primary cache. Further, the vehicle control unit 7 is reduced by one from the driving environment in which one environmental parameter is added to the driving environment held in the temporary cache and the driving environment in which the environmental parameter is held in the temporary cache. Hold at least one of the driving environments in the state in the secondary cache.

By doing so, the vehicle control unit 7 can extract a similar situation only from the data in the cache 292 even if a temporary communication interruption occurs.

This case will be described in more detail with reference to FIG. When the sensor 62 detects the surrounding situation 303 in which only the side front vehicle 302 exists around the own vehicle 301, the vehicle control unit 7 determines the traveling environment in which only the side front vehicle 302 exists (same). The driving environment in which only the environmental parameters exist) is extracted from the storage unit 8 in which all the driving environments (situations) are stored, and stored in the primary cache 304.

Further, the vehicle control unit 7 may be in a driving environment in which only one vehicle other than the side front vehicle 302 is added (a driving environment in which one environmental parameter is added to the same environmental parameter) or a side front vehicle 302. A driving environment without a vehicle (a driving environment in which one environmental parameter is reduced from the same environmental parameter) is extracted from the storage unit 8 and stored in the secondary cache 305.

Then, when the ambient condition 303 detected by the sensor 62 changes, the vehicle control unit 7 copies the traveling environment corresponding to the changed ambient condition 303 from the secondary cache 305 to the primary cache 304, and changes the ambient condition 303. By extracting the driving environment in which one environmental parameter is added and the driving environment in which one environmental parameter is reduced from the storage unit 8 with respect to the driving environment corresponding to the above, and storing it in the secondary cache 305, the second Next cache 305 is updated. As a result, the vehicle control unit 7 can smoothly extract similar surrounding conditions by comparing the surrounding conditions smoothly.

Next, a method using position information will be described. When the environmental parameter includes the position information, the vehicle control unit 7 stores the traveling environment (situation) in which the position indicated by the position information is included in a certain range centered on the own vehicle position from the storage unit 8. It can be extracted and stored in the cache 292.

In this case, the vehicle control unit 7 updates the cache 292 when the position indicated by the position information corresponding to the traveling environment deviates from the above-mentioned certain range. By doing so, the vehicle control unit 7 can extract a similar surrounding situation as long as the position is within a certain range even if communication is interrupted for a long period of time.

Further, a method of processing the data will be described. The storage unit 8 stores an operation history including environmental parameters. The vehicle control unit 7 divides each environmental parameter into fixed ranges and creates a mesh in a multidimensional space. Then, the vehicle control unit 7 creates a table that counts the behaviors included in each mesh for each type.

For example, the environment parameters to be used will be limited to two. The vehicle control unit 7 maps the environmental parameters included in the operation history into a plane as shown in FIG. 31 (a), and divides each of these axes within a certain range to divide the plane into a plurality of blocks. .. This is called a mesh.

The vehicle control unit 7 counts the number of behaviors included in each mesh for each type (for example, type of acceleration, deceleration, lane change, overtaking, etc.). FIG. 31B shows a table in which the number of behaviors contained in each mesh is counted for each type.

The vehicle control unit 7 holds this content in the cache 292. Then, the vehicle control unit 7 determines which mesh the detected environmental parameter is located in when extracting a similar surrounding situation by comparing the surrounding conditions, and the behavior included in the determined mesh. The behavior with the largest number is selected, and the behavior that notifies the selected behavior is determined.

For example, when the vehicle control unit 7 determines that the detected environmental parameter is located at the third mesh, the vehicle control unit 7 indicates the maximum number of the behaviors included in the third mesh (here, “acceleration”). Determine the behavior to notify the operation. With this method, the update timing of the cache 292 may be any time, and the capacity of the cache 292 can be fixed.

A cache is created by combining one or more of these methods. However, the method given above is an example, and the cache creation method is not limited to this.

As described above, in the example of the driver model extension of the fourth embodiment, the vehicle control unit 7 acquires the feature amount information indicating the driving characteristics of the driver including the information of the past driving environment, and the storage unit 8 acquires the information of the feature amount indicating the driving characteristics of the driver. When it is determined that it is necessary to store the feature amount information and change the behavior of the vehicle, the vehicle control unit 7 has newly acquired the driving environment from the feature amount information stored in the storage unit 8. It was decided to determine information similar to the feature quantity indicating the driving characteristics of the driver including the information, and to notify the behavior corresponding to the determined information.

Further, in the example of the driver model extension of the fourth embodiment, the feature amount information indicating the driving characteristics of the driver including the information of the past driving environment is the feature amount information when the behavior of the vehicle is presented to the driver. , And, it is decided that it is at least one of the information of the feature amount when the driver selects the behavior.

Further, in the example of the driver model extension of the fourth embodiment, the feature amount information indicating the driving characteristics of the driver including the information of the past driving environment is the feature amount information when the behavior of the vehicle is presented to the driver. , And, when both the information of the feature amount when the driver selects the behavior, the driving characteristic of the driver including the newly acquired information of the driving environment from the information of the feature amount of both of them. Information similar to the feature quantity indicating is determined, and the behavior corresponding to the determined information is notified.

Further, in the example of the driver model extension of the fourth embodiment, the feature amount information indicating the driving characteristics of the driver including the information of the past driving environment is the feature amount information when the behavior of the vehicle is presented to the driver. , And, when both the information of the feature amount when the driver selects the behavior, the information of the feature amount when the driver selects the behavior is preferentially newly acquired. It was decided to determine information similar to the feature amount indicating the driving characteristics of the driver, including information on the driving environment, and to notify the behavior corresponding to the determined information.

Further, in the example of the driver model extension of the fourth embodiment, the information of the feature amount indicating the driving characteristics of the driver including the information of the past driving environment is the driving during the automatic driving and / or the manual driving of the vehicle. It was decided that the information should be the amount of features that indicate the driving characteristics of the person.

As described above, the vehicle control unit 7 can construct a driver model more suitable for the driving tendency of the driver, and can perform more appropriate automatic driving for the driver based on the constructed driver model. By associating the parameters indicating the driving environment with the behavior, it is possible to accurately determine the next behavior without requiring a process for determining a specific driving environment, that is, without labeling the driving environment.

(Common description of embodiments 5 to 11)
In recent years, developments related to autonomous driving of automobiles have been promoted. Regarding autonomous driving, the automation levels defined by NHTSA (National Highway Traffic Safety Administration) in 2013 are no automation (level 0), automation of specific functions (level 1), automation of multiple functions (level 2), and semi-automated driving (level 2). It is classified into level 3) and fully automated operation (level 4). Level 1 is a driving support system that automatically performs one of acceleration, deceleration, and steering, and level 2 is a driving support system that automatically performs two or more of acceleration, deceleration, and steering in harmony. is there. In either case, the driver's involvement in driving operations remains. Automation level 4 is a fully automatic driving system that automatically performs all acceleration, deceleration, and steering, and the driver is not involved in the driving operation. Automation level 3 is a semi-fully automatic driving system in which acceleration, deceleration, and steering are all performed automatically, but the driver performs driving operations as needed.

In the following embodiments, the HMI (Human Machine Interface) for exchanging information on the automatic driving of the vehicle with the occupants (for example, the driver) of the vehicle is mainly controlled at the level 3 or 4 of the automatic driving. We propose a device (hereinafter also referred to as "driving support device"). One of the purposes of the techniques described in the fifth to eleventh embodiments is to support the realization of safe and comfortable automatic driving by presenting useful information to the driver during automatic driving of the vehicle. To do. In addition, the techniques described in the fifth to eleventh embodiments make it easier and easier for the driver to change the determined behavior of the vehicle during automatic driving by presenting information with less discomfort to the driver. Can be done.

The "behavior" of the vehicle in the following description corresponds to the "behavior" of the vehicle in the description of the first to fourth embodiments, and in automatic driving or manual driving, steering or braking while the vehicle is running or stopped, etc. Includes the operating state of the vehicle or the control content related to automatic operation control. For example, constant speed driving, acceleration, deceleration, pause, stop, lane change, course change, right / left turn, parking, etc. The action of the vehicle is divided into an action currently being executed (also referred to as "current action"), an action to be executed after the action currently being executed (also referred to as "scheduled action"), and the like. Furthermore, the scheduled action includes an action to be executed immediately after the action and an action scheduled to be executed at any timing after the action currently being executed is completed. The scheduled action may include an action to be executed after the action currently being executed is completed.

FIG. 32 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the vehicle 1000, and shows a configuration related to automatic driving. The vehicle 1000 can travel in the automatic driving mode, and includes a notification device 1002, an input device 1004, a wireless device 1008, a driving operation unit 1010, a detection unit 1020, an automatic driving control device 1030, and a driving support device 1040. Each device shown in FIG. 32 may be connected by a dedicated line or a wired communication such as CAN (Controller Area Network). Further, it may be connected by wired communication or wireless communication such as USB, Ethernet (registered trademark), Wi-Fi (registered trademark), and Bluetooth (registered trademark).

The notification device 1002 notifies the driver of information regarding the traveling of the vehicle 1000. The notification device 1002 is, for example, a car navigation system installed in a car, a head-up display, a center display, a steering wheel, a pillar, a dashboard, a light emitter such as an LED installed around a meter panel, or the like. It may be a display unit that displays information, a speaker that converts information into voice and notifies the driver, or a position that the driver can detect (for example, the driver's seat, steering wheel). It may be a vibrating body provided on a wheel or the like). Further, the notification device 1002 may be a combination of these.

The vehicle 1000 corresponds to the vehicle 1 of the first to fourth embodiments. The notification device 1002 corresponds to the information notification device 9 of FIGS. 1 and 13, the input device 1004 corresponds to the operation unit 51 of FIG. 1 and the input unit 102 of FIG. 13, and the detection unit 1020 corresponds to the detection of FIGS. 1 and 13. Corresponds to part 6. Further, the automatic driving control device 1030 and the driving support device 1040 correspond to the vehicle control unit 7 of FIGS. 1 and 13. Hereinafter, the description of the configuration already described in the first to fourth embodiments will be omitted as appropriate.

The notification device 1002 is a user interface device that presents information on the automatic driving of the vehicle to the occupants. The notification device 1002 may be a head unit such as a car navigation system or a display audio, a mobile terminal device such as a smartphone or a tablet, or a dedicated console terminal device. Further, the notification device 1002 may be a liquid crystal display, an organic EL display, or a head-up display (HUD). The input device 1004 is a user interface device that accepts operation input by an occupant. For example, the input device 1004 receives the information about the automatic driving of the own vehicle input by the driver. The input device 1004 outputs the received information as an operation signal to the driving support device 1040.

FIG. 33 schematically shows the interior of the vehicle 1000 of FIG. 32. The notification device 1002 may be a head-up display (HUD) 1002a or a center display 1002b. The input device 1004 may be the first operation unit 1004a provided on the steering 1011 or the second operation unit 1004b provided between the driver's seat and the passenger seat. The notification device 1002 and the input device 1004 may be integrated, or may be mounted as a touch panel display, for example.

Although not mentioned below, as shown in FIG. 33, the vehicle 1000 may be provided with a speaker 1006 that presents information on automatic driving to the occupants by voice. In this case, the driving support device 1040 may display an image showing information about automatic driving on the notification device 1002, and may, or instead of, output a sound indicating information about automatic driving from the speaker 1006.

Returning to FIG. 32, the wireless device 1008 is compatible with a mobile phone communication system, WMAN (Wireless Metropolitan Area Network), and the like, and executes wireless communication with a device (not shown) outside the vehicle 1000. The driving operation unit 1010 includes a steering wheel 1011, a brake pedal 1012, an accelerator pedal 1013, and a winker switch 1014. The steering wheel 1011 is FIG. 1, the steering wheel 5 of FIG. 13, the brake pedal 1012 is FIG. 1, the brake pedal 2 of FIG. 13, the accelerator pedal 1013 is FIG. 1, the accelerator pedal 3 of FIG. Corresponds to the winker lever 4 of.

The steering 1011 and the brake pedal 1012, the accelerator pedal 1013, and the winker switch 1014 can be electronically controlled by the winker controller at least one of the steering ECU, the brake ECU, the engine ECU and the motor ECU. In the automatic operation mode, the steering ECU, the brake ECU, the engine ECU, and the motor ECU drive the actuator in response to the control signal supplied from the automatic operation control device 1030. Further, the winker controller turns on or off the winker lamp according to the control signal supplied from the automatic operation control device 1030.

The detection unit 1020 detects the surrounding condition and the traveling state of the vehicle 1000. Although partially described in the first to fourth embodiments, for example, the detection unit 1020 is of the speed of the vehicle 1000, the relative speed of the preceding vehicle with respect to the vehicle 1000, the distance between the vehicle 1000 and the preceding vehicle, and the side lane with respect to the vehicle 1000. The relative speed of the vehicle, the distance between the vehicle 1000 and the vehicle in the side lane, and the position information of the vehicle 1000 are detected. The detection unit 1020 outputs various detected information (hereinafter referred to as “detection information”) to the automatic operation control device 1030 and the operation support device 1040. The details of the detection unit 1020 will be described later.

The automatic driving control device 1030 is an automatic driving controller equipped with an automatic driving control function, and determines the behavior of the vehicle 1000 in the automatic driving. The automatic operation control device 1030 includes a control unit 1031, a storage unit 1032, and an I / O unit 1033. The configuration of the control unit 1031 can be realized by the cooperation of the hardware resource and the software resource, or only by the hardware resource. Processors, ROMs, RAMs, and other LSIs can be used as hardware resources, and programs such as operating systems, applications, and firmware can be used as software resources. The storage unit 1032 includes a non-volatile recording medium such as a flash memory. The I / O unit 1033 executes communication control according to various communication formats. For example, the I / O unit 1033 outputs information on automatic driving to the driving support device 1040, and inputs a control command from the driving support device 1040. Further, the I / O unit 1033 inputs the detection information from the detection unit 1020.

The control unit 1031 applies control commands input from the driving support device 1040, various information collected from the detection unit 1020 or various ECUs to the automatic driving algorithm, and controls an automatic control target such as the traveling direction of the vehicle 1000. Calculate the control value. The control unit 1031 transmits the calculated control value to each control target ECU or controller. In this embodiment, transmission is transmitted to the steering ECU, the brake ECU, the engine ECU, and the winker controller. In the case of an electric vehicle or a hybrid vehicle, the control value is transmitted to the motor ECU in place of or in addition to the engine ECU.

The driving support device 1040 is an HMI controller that executes an interface function between the vehicle 1000 and the driver, and includes a control unit 1041, a storage unit 1042, and an I / O unit 1043. The control unit 1041 executes various data processes such as HMI control. The control unit 1041 can be realized by the collaboration of hardware resources and software resources, or only by hardware resources. Processors, ROMs, RAMs, and other LSIs can be used as hardware resources, and programs such as operating systems, applications, and firmware can be used as software resources.

The storage unit 1042 is a storage area for storing data referenced or updated by the control unit 1041. For example, it is realized by a non-volatile recording medium such as a flash memory. The I / O unit 1043 executes various communication controls according to various communication formats. The I / O unit 1043 includes an operation input unit 1050, an image output unit 1051, a detection information input unit 1052, a command IF 1053, and a communication IF 1056.

The operation input unit 1050 receives the operation signal operated by the driver, the occupant, or the user outside the vehicle from the input device 1004, and outputs the operation signal to the control unit 1041. The image output unit 1051 outputs the image data generated by the control unit 1041 to the notification device 1002 and displays it. The detection information input unit 1052 is the result of the detection process by the detection unit 1020, receives information indicating the current surrounding condition and running state of the vehicle 1000 (hereinafter referred to as “detection information”) from the detection unit 1020, and controls the detection information input unit 1052. Output to unit 1041.

The command IF 1053 executes interface processing with the automatic operation control device 1030, and includes an action information input unit 1054 and a command output unit 1055. The action information input unit 1054 receives the information regarding the automatic driving of the vehicle 1000 transmitted from the automatic driving control device 1030 and outputs the information to the control unit 1041. The command output unit 1055 receives a control command instructing the automatic operation control device 1030 from the control unit 1041 and transmits the control command to the automatic operation control device 1030.

The communication IF 1056 executes an interface process with the wireless device 1008. The communication IF 1056 transmits the data output from the control unit 1041 to the wireless device 1008, and causes the wireless device 1008 to transmit the data to the device outside the vehicle. Further, the communication IF 1056 receives the data transferred by the wireless device 1008 from the device outside the vehicle and outputs the data to the control unit 1041.

Here, the automatic driving control device 1030 and the driving support device 1040 are configured as separate devices. As a modification, as shown by the broken line in FIG. 32, the automatic operation control device 1030 and the operation support device 1040 may be integrated into one controller. In other words, one automatic driving control device may be configured to include the functions of both the automatic driving control device 1030 and the driving support device 1040 of FIG. 32. In this case, a plurality of ECUs may be provided in the integrated controller, one ECU may realize the function of the automatic operation control device 1030, and the other ECU may realize the function of the operation support device 1040. Further, one ECU in the integrated controller executes a plurality of OSs (Operating Systems), one OS realizes the function of the automatic operation control device 1030, and the other OS realizes the function of the operation support device 1040. You may.

FIG. 34 is a block diagram showing a detailed configuration of the detection unit 1020 of FIG. 32. The detection unit 1020 includes a position information acquisition unit 1021, a sensor 1022, a speed information acquisition unit 1023, and a map information acquisition unit 1024. The position information acquisition unit 1021 acquires the current position of the vehicle 1000 from the GPS receiver.

The sensor 1022 is a general term for various sensors for detecting the situation outside the vehicle and the state of the vehicle 1000. As sensors for detecting the situation outside the vehicle, for example, a camera, a millimeter wave radar, a LIDAR (Light Detection and Ranging, Laser Imaging Detection and Ranging), a temperature sensor, a pressure pressure sensor, a humidity sensor, an illuminance sensor, and the like are installed. The conditions outside the vehicle include the road conditions on which the vehicle travels including lane information, the environment including the weather, the conditions around the vehicle, and other vehicles in the vicinity (other vehicles traveling in the adjacent lane, etc.). Any information outside the vehicle that can be detected by the sensor may be used. Further, as a sensor for detecting the state of the vehicle 1000, for example, an acceleration sensor, a gyro sensor, a geomagnetic sensor, an inclination sensor and the like are mounted.

The speed information acquisition unit 1023 acquires the current speed of the vehicle 1000 from the vehicle speed sensor. The map information acquisition unit 1024 acquires map information around the current position of the vehicle 1000 from the map database. The map database may be recorded on a recording medium in the vehicle 1000, or may be downloaded from a map server via a network at the time of use. Hereinafter, each embodiment will be described.

(Embodiment 5)
First, an outline will be described. During automatic driving of a vehicle, if only the current behavior of the vehicle is notified and nothing is notified about the future behavior, the occupants of the vehicle may feel uneasy.
Therefore, in the fifth embodiment, an action to be executed by the vehicle 1000 at present in automatic driving (hereinafter referred to as "current action") and an action scheduled to be executed next to the action (hereinafter referred to as "scheduled action"). Present both to the driver. Specifically, the automatic driving control device 1030 determines the current action and the scheduled action. Then, the driving support device 1040 causes the notification device 1002 in the vehicle 1000 to display both the current action and the scheduled action.

In the following, the contents already explained in the previous embodiments will be omitted as appropriate. The configuration or operation described in this embodiment can be combined with or replaced with the configuration or operation described in other embodiments or modifications without departing from the spirit.

The automatic driving control device 1030 of the fifth embodiment determines both the current action and the scheduled action based on the detection information output by the detection unit 1020. The action information input unit 1054 of the driving support device 1040 is scheduled to cause the vehicle 1000 to execute the current action information indicating the current action that the automatic driving control device 1030 causes the vehicle 1000 to execute, and the automatic driving control device 1030 to execute the vehicle 1000 next to the current action. Scheduled action information indicating the action is acquired from the automatic driving control device 1030. In the fifth embodiment, data including both current behavior information and scheduled behavior information is acquired as behavior information. The current action can be said to be the action that the vehicle is currently performing. Further, the scheduled action can be said to be an action to be executed after the action currently being executed is completed, for example, an action to be executed next to the current action, or an action to be executed next to the current action. You may.

FIG. 35 shows the behavior information input from the automatic driving control device 1030. This behavior information includes current behavior information which is identification information of the current behavior and scheduled behavior information which is identification information of the scheduled behavior. The identification information of the current action and the scheduled action may be a code or the like that can uniquely identify the type of action. Further, the action information includes the time from the current time to the execution of the scheduled action, in other words, the remaining time information indicating the time from the current time until the current action is switched to the scheduled action. For example, the action information in FIG. 35 shows that the current action is a lane change to the right, the scheduled action is accelerated, and the remaining time from the end of the current action to the start of the scheduled action is 10 seconds. ing. The "current time" is the time at the current time recognized by the automatic operation control device 1030, and may be, for example, the system time inside the automatic operation control device 1030. Further, the time may be obtained from a clock device (not shown) that measures the current time inside the vehicle 1000. Furthermore, it may be the time when the content of the current action is determined, the time when the content of the scheduled action to be executed in the future is determined, or the time when the action information is notified to the driving support device 1040.

FIG. 36 is a block diagram showing a detailed configuration of the control unit 1041 of the driving support device 1040. The control unit 1041 includes an image generation unit 1060. The image generation unit 1060 generates a current behavior image representing the current behavior based on the current behavior information input from the automatic driving control device 1030, and generates a scheduled behavior image representing the scheduled behavior based on the scheduled behavior information. In the fifth embodiment, the current action image having a size larger than the size of the planned action image is generated.

The image output unit 1051 of the driving support device 1040 outputs the current action image and the planned action image to the notification device 1002 so as to display the current action image and the planned action image within a constant field of view of the driver of the vehicle 1000. Displaying in the same visual field of the driver can be said to be displayed in the same visual field of the driver. For example, both the current action image and the planned action image may be displayed simultaneously at a nearby position or within a predetermined distance so that the driver can visually recognize them at the same time. Further, those images may be displayed at predetermined positions on the same screen with a time overlap. Further, both the current action image and the planned action image may be displayed in a nearby range where the movement of the line of sight is unnecessary. Furthermore, the image generation unit 1060 may generate image data of a screen in which the current action image and the planned action image are arranged in such a neighborhood range.

Further, the image generation unit 1060 further generates a remaining time image representing the time until the scheduled action updated by the remaining time information input from the automatic operation control device 1030 is executed. The image output unit 1051 further outputs the remaining time image to the notification device 1002, and displays the current action image and the scheduled action image to which the remaining time image is added within a fixed field of view of the driver of the vehicle 1000.

A screen including various information related to automatic driving displayed on the notification device 1002 is also referred to as an "automatic driving information screen". FIG. 37 shows an example of the automatic driving information screen. FIG. 37 (a) shows an example of the automatic operation information screen 1103 at the first time point, and FIG. 37 (b) shows an example of the automatic operation information screen 1103 at the second time point after the first time point.

The display mode of the current action image 1104 on the automatic driving information screen 1103 is set to be different from the display mode of the planned action image 1106. This prevents the driver from confusing the current behavior of the vehicle with the planned behavior following the current behavior. For example, the current action image 1104 is displayed in a size larger than the planned action image 1106. Further, the current behavior image 1104 is displayed at the center position in a fixed field of view of the driver of the vehicle 1000, and is displayed at a position near the center of the automatic driving information screen 1103, for example. On the other hand, the scheduled action image 1106 is displayed at a peripheral position within a fixed visual field of the driver, and is displayed near the edge of the automatic driving information screen 1103, for example. In the example of FIGS. 37 (a) and 37 (b), the current action image 1104 is displayed in the main area 1100 on the screen on the automatic driving information screen 1103, while the planned action image 1106 is a sub area smaller than the main area 1100. It is displayed at 1102.

Further, on the automatic operation information screen 1103, the remaining time image 1108 is displayed in association with the scheduled action image 1106. Specifically, the scheduled action image 1106 and the remaining time image 1108 are located at nearby positions in the same sub-region 1102. Displayed side by side. In embodiment 5, the remaining time image 1108 includes a plurality of time indicators 1109. Each time indicator 1109 is displayed in a lit state or an extinguished state, and the longer the remaining time until the scheduled action is executed, the more time indicators 1109 are displayed in the lit state.

Further, in the remaining time image 1108, the time indicator 1109 in the lit state gradually changes to the extinguished state with the passage of time, so that the driver is notified of the status of the remaining time until the scheduled action is executed. For example, one time indicator 1109 may be allocated 5 seconds, and the five time indicators 1109 may indicate a maximum remaining time of 25 seconds. An appropriate value may be determined for the time until one time indicator 1109 turns off by the knowledge of the developer, an experiment, or the like, and a user such as a driver may be able to set an arbitrary time.

Typically, when one time indicator 1109 minutes elapses from the first time point when the automatic driving information screen 1103 of FIG. 37 (a) is displayed, the current behavior of the vehicle 1000 is scheduled in FIG. 37 (a). It switches to the "acceleration" shown in the action image 1106. At the same time, the automatic operation information screen 1103 of FIG. 37B is also displayed on the notification device 1002. In the automatic driving information screen 1103 of FIG. 37 (b), the "acceleration" shown in the scheduled action image 1106 of FIG. 37 (a) is shown in the current action image 1104.

The automatic driving control device 1030 may determine an action plan, which is information in which a plurality of actions (single actions) are continuously combined as scheduled actions. The action plan includes "overtaking". For example, the action plan "overtaking" consists of a combination of three single actions, specifically (1) changing lanes to the right, (2) accelerating, and (3) changing lanes to the left. It is composed. When the automatic driving control device 1030 determines an action plan as a scheduled action, the action information input unit 1054 of the driving support device 1040 acquires the scheduled action information indicating the action plan. Specifically, in the scheduled action column (scheduled action information) of the action information shown in FIG. 35, information indicating a plurality of single actions and the execution order of each single action is set.

When the scheduled action is an action plan, the image generation unit 1060 arranges a plurality of images representing a plurality of single actions included in the action plan in action units in an order in which the plurality of single actions are executed. A scheduled action image 1106 is generated. FIG. 38 shows an example of the automatic driving information screen. On the automatic driving information screen 1103 of the figure, a scheduled action image 1106 showing an action plan showing overtaking is displayed. Further, the scheduled action image 1106 in the figure includes three images showing three single actions, and the image of the single action with the earlier execution order is arranged at a lower position.

Further, the automatic driving control device 1030 may determine, as a scheduled action, a plurality of action candidates that can be executed next to the current action in the automatic driving as the scheduled action. In this case, the scheduled action may include, for example, two of the first candidate "acceleration" and the second candidate "deceleration", and may further include three including the third candidate "change of lane to the left". The automatic driving control device 1030 determines the remaining time when each of the plurality of action candidates is executed, and further determines the priority among the plurality of action candidates.

The action information input unit 1054 of the driving support device 1040 acquires scheduled action information (referred to as “candidate information” here) including a plurality of action candidates. Specifically, in the scheduled action column of the action information shown in FIG. 35, a plurality of action candidates and candidate information indicating the remaining time and priority of each action candidate are set.

The image generation unit 1060 generates a current action image 1104 representing the current action indicated by the action information and a plurality of candidate images corresponding to the plurality of action candidates indicated by the action information. In the fifth embodiment, as the plurality of candidate images, a plurality of scheduled action images 1106 representing a plurality of action candidates and a plurality of remaining time images 1108 representing the remaining time of each action candidate are generated. The image output unit 1051 outputs the current action image 1104 to the notification device 1002, and outputs a plurality of candidate images in a predetermined order. As a result, a plurality of candidate images displayed and arranged according to a predetermined ranking are displayed together with the current behavior image 1104 within a fixed field of view of the driver.

The ranking among the candidate actions is executed according to the priority of each action candidate shown in the action information. Specifically, the higher the priority of the action candidate, the higher the ranking. As a modification, the action candidate with the shorter remaining time until execution may be ranked higher. Further, as described in the embodiment described later, the action candidate having a higher degree of matching with the driver's preference or operation pattern under the current surrounding conditions and driving state of the vehicle 1000 may be ranked higher. ..

The display arrangement by ranking is a non-parametric that visualizes a plurality of candidate images corresponding to a plurality of action candidates in a predetermined position in the automatic driving information screen 1103 according to the ranking of each action candidate, in order of ranking in the vertical and horizontal directions. It may be arranged in the form of display. This order (also in other embodiments) can be said to be the priority and priority of the display on the screen or the proposal to the driver, and can also be said to be the recommended order and the recommended degree. For example, the higher-ranked candidate image of the action candidate may be arranged on the right side (may be the left side or may be arranged in advance) in the sub-region 1102 of the automatic driving information screen 1103.

Further, the display arrangement by ranking may be a parametric display in which the ranking is visualized by a histogram or the like. For example, each candidate image may be displayed in a mode in which an object indicating the order generated by the image generation unit 1060 is added. This object may be a histogram image having a shape according to the rank, a numerical image showing the rank itself, or the like, or may be generated by the image generation unit 1060. An example of parametric display is also shown in FIGS. 63 (a) and 63 (b) described later. Furthermore, the candidate images of higher-ranked action candidates may be displayed with a more conspicuous appearance (design), for example, the display size may be increased, or the images may be displayed in colors that are expected to have higher visibility. ..

FIG. 39 shows an example of the automatic driving information screen. On the automatic driving information screen 1103 of the figure, a first scheduled action image 1106a representing the first action candidate “acceleration” and a second scheduled action image 1106b representing the second action candidate “deceleration” are displayed. Further, a first remaining time image 1108a showing the remaining time until the first action candidate is executed and a second remaining time image 1108b showing the remaining time until the second action candidate is executed are displayed. Here, it is assumed that "acceleration" has a higher priority, and the first scheduled action image 1106a showing "acceleration" is displayed on the right side indicating that the ranking is higher. In FIG. 39, the order of the first scheduled action image 1106a and the remaining time image 1108 is presented in the form of non-parametric display. As described above, the ranking may be presented in a parametric format in which a histogram of the shape corresponding to the ranking is added to each of the first scheduled behavior image 1106a and the second scheduled behavior image 1106b.

According to this aspect, it is possible to make the driver grasp in advance a plurality of action candidates that can be executed in the future by the automatic driving of the vehicle, and to provide the driver with a further sense of security. Further, as described in a later embodiment, when the driver can select the planned action, the driver can select the future action of the vehicle in the automatic driving from a plurality of candidates. In addition, by showing the driver the ranking among the candidates, it is possible to support the driver in selecting the candidate.

FIG. 40 is a sequence diagram showing an example of processing related to HMI control of the vehicle 1000. The detection unit 1020 detects the surrounding condition and the traveling state of the vehicle 1000, and outputs the detection information indicating the detection result to the automatic driving control device 1030 (P1). The automatic driving control device 1030 determines the current action of the vehicle, the scheduled action, and the remaining time until the scheduled action is executed according to the detection information acquired from the detection unit 1020. Then, by outputting the action instruction instructing the execution of the current action to the driving operation unit 1010, the vehicle 1000 is made to execute the current action (P2). Further, the automatic driving control device 1030 transmits the current action information, the scheduled action information, and the remaining time information to the driving support device 1040 (P3).

The driving support device 1040 generates a current action image, a scheduled action image, and a remaining time image based on the current action information, the scheduled action information, and the remaining time information acquired from the automatic driving control device 1030, and displays them on the notification device 1002. (P4). Specifically, the image generation unit 1060 of the driving support device 1040 further determines the display positions of the current action image, the scheduled action image, and the remaining time image on the screen. The image output unit 1051 of the driving support device 1040 outputs display position information indicating the display position of each image to the notification device 1002 together with the current action image, the scheduled action image, and the remaining time image, and each image is shown in FIG. 37 and the like. Display the automatic operation information screen placed at the above position.

As a modification, the image generation unit 1060 of the driving support device 1040 generates image data of the entire automatic driving information screen in which the current action image is arranged at the center position and the planned action image and the remaining time image are arranged at the peripheral positions. May be good. The image output unit 1051 of the driving support device 1040 may output the generated image data of the automatic driving information screen to the notification device 1002 and display it.

The driving support device 1040 updates the mode of the remaining time image on the automatic driving information screen by measuring the time from P4 (P5) and outputting the updated remaining time image reflecting the passage of time to the notification device 1002. (P6). The remaining time image after the update is, for example, an image in which the time indicator that was in the lit state until then is changed to the lit state. The driving support device 1040 repeats the update process of the remaining time image until new current action information, scheduled action information, and remaining time information are acquired from the automatic driving control device 1030 (S7 to S8).

The detection unit 1020 periodically detects the surrounding condition and the traveling state of the vehicle 1000, and outputs the detection information indicating the detection result to the automatic driving control device 1030 (P9). The automatic driving control device 1030 newly determines the current action, the scheduled action, and the remaining time until the scheduled action according to the detection information. Then, by outputting the action instruction instructing the execution of the newly determined current action to the driving operation unit 1010, the vehicle 1000 is made to execute the newly determined current action (P10). The automatic driving control device 1030 transmits newly determined current action, scheduled action, new current action information indicating the remaining time, scheduled action information, and remaining time information to the driving support device 1040 (P11). The driving support device 1040 has a new current behavior image, a new scheduled behavior image, and a new remaining time based on the new current behavior information, the new scheduled behavior information, and the new remaining time information acquired from the automatic driving control device 1030. A time image is generated and displayed on the notification device 1002 (P12).

As shown by the broken line in FIG. 40, the automatic driving control device 1030 and the driving support device 1040 may be integrated into one automatic driving control device. In that case, one automatic driving control device may execute the processing of both the automatic driving control device 1030 and the driving support device 1040. The same applies to the subsequent embodiments.

FIG. 41 is a flowchart showing an example of processing of the driving support device 1040. When the action information input unit 1054 acquires the action information output from the automatic operation control device 1030 (Y in S100), the image generation unit 1060 has the current action indicated by the action information and the current action stored in the storage unit 1042 in advance. Judges whether or not matches. Further, it is determined whether or not the scheduled action indicated by the action information matches the scheduled action stored in the storage unit 1042 in advance.

When the current action indicated by the action information and the current action stored in advance in the storage unit 1042 do not match, that is, when the current action is updated (Y in S102), the image generation unit 1060 represents the current action indicated by the action information. Currently, a behavior image is generated (S103). The image output unit 1051 outputs the current action image to the notification device 1002 and displays it (S104), and the image generation unit 1060 stores the current action indicated by the action information in the storage unit 1042 (S105). If the current action indicated by the action information and the current action stored in advance in the storage unit 1042 match, that is, if the current action is not updated (N in S102), S103 to S105 are skipped.

When the scheduled action indicated by the action information and the scheduled action stored in advance in the storage unit 1042 do not match, that is, when the scheduled action is updated (Y in S106), the image generation unit 1060 represents the scheduled action indicated by the action information. Generate a scheduled action image. Further, the image generation unit 1060 generates a remaining time image representing the remaining time indicated by the action information (S107). The image output unit 1051 outputs the scheduled action image and the remaining time image to the notification device 1002 and displays them (S108), and the image generation unit 1060 stores the scheduled action indicated by the action information in the storage unit 1042 (S109). The image generation unit 1060 starts measuring the elapsed time from the start of displaying the scheduled action image and the remaining time image (S110).

When the predetermined end condition is satisfied (Y in S111), the flow of this figure is ended, and when the end condition is not satisfied (N in S111), the process returns to S100. The termination condition is common to the subsequent embodiments, and is satisfied, for example, when the driver terminates the automatic driving mode, or when the ignition key of the vehicle or the power is switched off.

When the action information is not input from the automatic operation control device 1030 (N in S100), the image generation unit 1060 determines whether or not a predetermined time has elapsed from the start of measurement of the elapsed time. Similarly, when the scheduled action indicated by the action information and the scheduled action stored in advance in the storage unit 1042 match, that is, when the scheduled action is not updated (N in S106), the image generation unit 1060 starts measuring the elapsed time. It is determined whether or not the predetermined time has elapsed from. When it is detected that a predetermined time has elapsed from the start of measurement of the elapsed time (Y in S112), the image generation unit 1060 updates the remaining time image (S113). For example, when it is detected that the time allocated to one time indicator 1109 has elapsed, the remaining time image in which one time indicator 1109 is changed from the lit state to the off state is generated. The image output unit 1051 outputs the updated remaining time image to the notification device 1002 and displays it (S114). As a modification, the remaining time image may be updated, or the entire image of the automatic driving information screen may be updated. If the predetermined time has not elapsed from the start of measurement of the elapsed time (N in S112), S113 and S114 are skipped.

In relation to S106 to S109 of FIG. 41, the automatic driving control device 1030 changes the scheduled action from the first scheduled action (for example, changing lanes to the right) to the second scheduled action (for example, accelerating) while executing a certain current action. Subject to change. In this case, the action information input unit 1054 of the driving support device 1040 acquires the action information from which the scheduled action information and the remaining time information have been updated while the current action information has not been updated from the automatic driving control device 1030. Specifically, the scheduled action information is updated to indicate the second scheduled action, and the updated action information is acquired so that the remaining time information indicates the time until the second scheduled action is executed.

The image generation unit 1060 generates a new scheduled action image representing the second scheduled action and a new remaining time image representing the time until the second scheduled action is executed. The image output unit 1051 outputs a new scheduled action image and a new remaining time image to the notification device 1002. As a result, within a certain field of view of the driver, a new scheduled behavior image and a new remaining time image representing the second scheduled behavior are displayed in place of the previous scheduled behavior image and the remaining time image representing the first scheduled behavior. Display with the unupdated current action image.

Although each process is sequentially executed in the flowchart of FIG. 41, each process may be executed in parallel as appropriate. For example, the processes S102 to S105 and the processes S106 to S110 may be executed in parallel. Further, the determinations of S102 and S106 may be skipped when the action information is input from the automatic driving control device 1030. That is, regardless of whether the current action and the scheduled action are updated, new generation and output of the current action image, the scheduled action image, and the remaining time image may be executed at all times.

As described above, the driving support device 1040 of the fifth embodiment notifies the occupants (drivers, etc.) of the vehicle of the current behavior in the automatic driving, and is the behavior at the future time, specifically. The scheduled action following the current action will also be notified in advance. In addition, the remaining time until the current action is switched to the scheduled action is further notified. This can help the driver of the vehicle foresee the planned behavior in autonomous driving and foresee when the scheduled behavior will be executed. In other words, it is possible to suppress the execution of unexpected behavior of the occupant in the automatic driving of the vehicle, and to prevent the occupant from feeling anxious. In addition, it is possible to assist the driver in appropriately deciding whether to stop the automatic driving and regain the driving authority.

A modified example will be described. The automatic driving control device 1030 performs a second action (for example, acceleration) to be executed next to the first action (for example, changing lanes to the right), which is the current action, and the second action during the automatic driving of the vehicle. Determine the time remaining to run. In this case, the automatic driving control device 1030 may further determine the third action (for example, deceleration) to be executed after the second action and the remaining time until the third action is executed.

The action information input unit 1054 of the driving support device 1040 includes current action information indicating the first action, scheduled action information indicating the second action and the third action, remaining time until the second action, and remaining until the third action. The remaining time information indicating the time may be acquired from the automatic operation control device 1030. The image generation unit 1060 plans to show the current action image representing the first action, the scheduled action image and the remaining time image showing the remaining time until the second action and the second action, and the remaining time until the third action and the third action. A behavior image and a remaining time image may be generated.

The image output unit 1051 may output these image data to the notification device 1002 and display these images side by side in a fixed field of view of the driver in the manner shown in FIG. 39. For example, the scheduled action image and the remaining time image showing the second action and the remaining time until the second action may be arranged as in the first scheduled action image 1106a and the second scheduled action image 1106b in FIG. 39. Further, the scheduled action image and the remaining time image showing the third action and the remaining time until the third action may be arranged as in the second scheduled action image 1106b and the second remaining time image 1108b in FIG. 39.

While the current action of the vehicle is the first action, the scheduled action image and the remaining time image showing the remaining time until the third action and the third action may be hidden. For example, processing related to the generation, output, or display of these images may be skipped. When the third action is hidden, it may be displayed in the mode shown in FIG. 37 (a).

Here, when the current action of the vehicle is switched from the first action to the second action, the image output unit 1051 hides the image showing the first action and performs the second action within the same field of view of the driver. The image to be represented and the image to represent the third action may be displayed. This is a case where, for example, a notification (new action information or the like) indicating that the current action of the vehicle has been switched from the first action to the second action is received from the automatic driving control device 1030. The image generation unit 1060 generates a current action image showing the second action as the current action and a scheduled action image showing the third action as the scheduled action, and the image output unit 1051 outputs those images to the notification device 1002. The contents of the automatic operation information screen 1103 may be switched.

When the third action is hidden during the execution of the first action, the automatic driving information screen 1103 of this modification is, for example, a screen transition from FIG. 37 (a) to FIG. 37 (b). On the other hand, when the third action is displayed during the execution of the first action, the screen transition is, for example, from FIG. 39 to FIG. 37 (b). Regardless of whether or not the third action is displayed during the execution of the first action, when the current action of the vehicle is switched from the first action to the second action, the position of the image showing the second action is constant for the driver. It changes from the peripheral position in the field of view to the central position. Further, the display of the relatively small scheduled action image representing the second action is switched to the display of the relatively large current action image representing the second action. On the other hand, the scheduled action image, which is an image showing the third action, is displayed at a peripheral position within a certain visual field of the driver in a size smaller than the current action image showing the second action.

(Embodiment 6)
First, an outline will be described. During automatic driving of a vehicle, the driver may not be able to grasp what action can be instructed as an action to be immediately executed by the vehicle, and this may cause the driver to feel uneasy.

Therefore, in the sixth embodiment, instead of the current action of the vehicle in the automatic driving, a candidate for an action to be immediately executed by the vehicle (hereinafter referred to as a "current action candidate") is presented to the driver. The current action candidate can be said to be a candidate for an alternative action to replace the current action, and can also be said to be a candidate for an action that can be executed by the vehicle 1000 in place of the current action. Specifically, the automatic driving control device 1030 determines the current action, and the driving support device 1040 determines the current action candidate. Then, the driving support device 1040 causes the notification device 1002 in the vehicle 1000 to display both the current action and the current action candidate. Even if the driver instructs an action to be executed immediately, processing in each device or communication between devices actually occurs, so it goes without saying that a certain delay is allowed from the current point in time. is there.

In the following, the contents already explained in the previous embodiments will be omitted as appropriate. The configuration or operation described in this embodiment can be combined with or replaced with the configuration or operation described in other embodiments or modifications without departing from the spirit.

FIG. 42 is a block diagram showing a detailed configuration of the storage unit 1042 of the driving support device 1040. The storage unit 1042 includes a statistical information storage unit 1070 and a determination standard holding unit 1071.

The statistical information storage unit 1070 accumulates statistical information indicating the relationship between the surrounding conditions and running conditions of the vehicle and the behavior of the vehicle. FIG. 43 schematically shows the statistical information stored in the statistical information storage unit 1070. The statistical information of the sixth embodiment corresponds to the driving history of FIG. 27 and the driver model of FIG. 28. The statistical information is information including a plurality of records in which the values of a plurality of types of environmental parameters indicating the surrounding condition and the running state of the vehicle are associated with the action to be immediately executed by the vehicle (or the action record to be immediately executed by the vehicle). .. In other words, it is the information accumulated by associating the current actions executed in various environmental states with the parameter values indicating the environmental states. The information may be modeled and patterned by known statistical processing.

The action defined in the statistical information of the sixth embodiment is the current action of the vehicle, in other words, the action of causing the vehicle to execute immediately. The actions defined by the statistical information include a single action as shown in the history (d) and (e), and also include an action plan in which a plurality of single actions are combined as shown in the history (f). Further, since the meaning of each environmental parameter defined by the statistical information has already been explained in the fourth embodiment, the description here will be omitted. The environmental parameters include the speed of the vehicle 1000, the relative speed of the preceding vehicle with respect to the vehicle 1000, the distance between the vehicle 1000 and the preceding vehicle, the relative speed of other vehicles in the side lane with respect to the vehicle 1000, and the vehicle 1000 and the side lane. The distance to another vehicle and the position information of the vehicle 1000 are included. The item of the environmental parameter defined by the statistical information is included in the detection information input from the detection unit 1020, or the item value can be specified by the calculation based on the detection information.

Returning to FIG. 42, the determination standard holding unit 1071 holds data (hereinafter, referred to as “determination standard”) that serves as a reference for the determination process by the determination unit 1062 described later. The determination criterion is data that defines actions that can be currently (immediately) executed by the vehicle 1000 for each pattern for a plurality of patterns of detection information input from the detection unit 1020. For example, if a pattern with detection information indicates that there are other vehicles in the front and right lanes, the pattern may define deceleration and left lane change as possible action candidates. In other words, acceleration and lane change to the right may be excluded from possible action candidates.

The action information input unit 1054 of the driving support device 1040 acquires the action information indicating the current action to be executed by the automatic driving control device 1030 to the vehicle 1000 from the automatic driving control device 1030. The detection information input unit 1052 of the driving support device 1040 acquires the detection information indicating the detection result of the surrounding condition and the traveling state of the vehicle 1000 from the detection unit 1020.

FIG. 44 is a block diagram showing a detailed configuration of the control unit 1041 of the driving support device 1040. The control unit 1041 includes an image generation unit 1060, a candidate determination unit 1061, a determination unit 1062, and an instruction unit 1063. The candidate determination unit 1061 and the determination unit 1062 determine an action candidate that can be executed separately from the current action indicated by the action information acquired from the automatic driving control device 1030, based on the detection information acquired from the detection unit 1020.

Specifically, the candidate determination unit 1061 constructs an n-dimensional vector space corresponding to the number (n) of environmental parameters in the statistical information stored in the statistical information storage unit 1070, and performs the action defined in the statistical information. Place it in that vector space. Next, a specific position in the vector space and a position corresponding to the environmental parameter value indicated by the detection information (hereinafter, also referred to as “current environment position”) is specified. Then, one or more actions existing within a predetermined range (in other words, within a predetermined distance) from the current environment position in the vector space are determined as temporary current action candidates. That is, the candidate determination unit 1061 determines, among the plurality of types of actions defined in the statistical information, the action associated with the environmental parameter value that approximates the detection information as a provisional current action candidate. The threshold value in a predetermined range may be determined by the knowledge of the developer or an experiment.

The determination unit 1062 refers to the detection information output from the detection unit 1020 and the determination criteria held in the determination standard holding unit 1071, and each of the provisional current action candidates determined by the candidate determination unit 1061 is a vehicle. Determines if it is possible to have the current (immediate) execution. The determination unit 1062 determines, among the one or more provisional current action candidates determined by the candidate determination unit 1061, a candidate that can be currently executed by the vehicle as a final current action candidate to be presented to the driver. To do. For example, if the tentative current action candidate is a lane change to the right and there is no other vehicle in the right lane, the tentative current action candidate may be determined as the final current action candidate. Conversely, if the tentative current action candidate is a lane change to the right and there is another vehicle in the right lane, the tentative current action candidate may be excluded from the final current action candidate. The determination process of whether or not the vehicle can currently perform a specific action by the determination unit 1062 may be realized by a known method.

As described above, in the sixth embodiment, the current action candidate to be presented to the driver is determined by the cooperation of the candidate determination unit 1061 and the determination unit 1062, but only one of the processes is executed to determine the current action candidate. May be good. Once the candidate determination unit 1061 or the determination unit 1062 determines one or more current action candidates, it determines whether or not the current action indicated by the action information matches each candidate. Then, the current action candidate that matches the current action is excluded from the candidates, and only the current action candidate that does not match the current action is passed to the image generation unit 1060 as a presentation target to the driver. This suppresses the presentation of an action that matches the current action as an action that replaces the current action.

The image generation unit 1060 generates a current action image representing the current action indicated by the action information, and generates a current action candidate image representing the final current action candidate determined by the candidate determination unit 1061 and the determination unit 1062. The image output unit 1051 outputs the current action image and the current action candidate image to the notification device 1002 so as to display the current action image and the current action candidate image within a certain field of view of the driver of the vehicle. Although not mentioned in the sixth embodiment, as in the fifth embodiment, the driving support device 1040 acquires the scheduled action information and the remaining time information from the automatic driving control device 1030 in addition to the current action information, and obtains the scheduled action image and the remaining time information. The remaining time image may be further displayed on the notification device 1002.

The notification device 1002 displays an automatic driving information screen including a current action image and a current action candidate image output from the driving support device 1040. FIG. 45 shows an example of the automatic driving information screen. The figure shows an automatic driving information screen 1103 in which the current action image 1104 is arranged in the main area 1100 and two current action candidate images 1110 are arranged in the sub area 1102. In the figure, the upper current action candidate image 1110 shows the first current action candidate "deceleration", and the lower current action candidate image 1110 shows the second current action candidate "advance (maintain speed)". ing.

Further, the display mode of the current action image 1104 on the automatic driving information screen 1103 is set to be different from the display mode of the current action candidate image 1110. This prevents the driver from confusing the current action determined by the automatic driving controller with the current action candidate proposed as an action to replace the current action. For example, the current action image 1104 is displayed in a size larger than the current action candidate image 1110. Further, the current behavior image 1104 is displayed at the center position in a fixed field of view of the driver of the vehicle 1000, and is displayed at a position near the center of the automatic driving information screen 1103, for example. On the other hand, the current action candidate image 1110 is displayed at a peripheral position within a fixed visual field of the driver, and is displayed near the edge of the automatic driving information screen 1103, for example.

Returning to FIG. 44, the instruction unit 1063 automatically outputs a control command for causing the vehicle to execute the current action candidate when a predetermined time elapses after outputting (after displaying) the current action candidate image 1110 from the command output unit 1055. It is output to the operation control device 1030.

Specifically, the operation input unit 1050 receives from the input device 1004 a signal (hereinafter referred to as an “operation instruction”) that specifies an action of the vehicle to be executed during automatic driving. When the current action image 1104 and the current action candidate image 1110 have not received the operation instruction within the predetermined time displayed on the notification device 1002, the instruction unit 1063 executes the current action candidate represented by the current action candidate image 1110. Is output from the command output unit 1055 to the automatic operation control device 1030. This situation can be said to be a case where the operation instruction is not received within a predetermined time after the current action candidate image 1110 is output. The predetermined time for waiting for the reception of the operation instruction may be set to an appropriate value based on the knowledge of the developer or an experiment, and may be set to, for example, 5 seconds to 10 seconds.

Further, when the operation instruction is received within the predetermined time displayed on the notification device 1002 by the current action image 1104 and the current action candidate image 1110, the instruction unit 1063 causes the vehicle to execute the action specified by the operation instruction. The control command is output from the command output unit 1055 to the automatic operation control device 1030. The action specified by the operation instruction is the current action determined by the automatic driving control device 1030 or the current action candidate determined by the driving support device 1040.

For example, when an operation instruction for selecting the current action candidate image 1110 is input from the input device 1004, the command output unit 1055 issues a control command for causing the vehicle to execute the current action candidate represented by the current action candidate image 1110. To output to. On the contrary, when an operation instruction for selecting the current action image 1104 is input from the input device 1004, a control command for causing the vehicle to execute the current action represented by the current action image 1104 is output from the command output unit 1055 to the automatic driving control device 1030. Let me.

FIG. 46 is a sequence diagram showing an example of processing related to HMI control of the vehicle 1000. The detection unit 1020 periodically detects the surrounding condition and the traveling state of the vehicle 1000, and periodically outputs the detection information indicating the detection result to the automatic driving control device 1030 (P21). The automatic driving control device 1030 determines the current behavior of the vehicle according to the detection information acquired from the detection unit 1020. Then, by outputting the action instruction instructing the execution of the current action to the driving operation unit 1010, the vehicle 1000 is made to execute the current action (P22). Further, the automatic driving control device 1030 transmits the action information indicating the current action to the driving support device 1040 (P23). The driving support device 1040 generates a current action image based on the current action information acquired from the automatic driving control device 1030, and displays it on the notification device 1002 (P24).

The driving support device 1040 acquires the detection information periodically output by the detection unit 1020 (P25). For example, the detection information output by the detection unit 1020 in P21 may be acquired in parallel with (independently) the automatic operation control device 1030. Alternatively, the detection information transferred by the automatic operation control device 1030 may be acquired. Each time the driving support device 1040 acquires the detection information that is periodically output, the driving support device 1040 determines the current action candidate based on the detection information (P26). The driving support device 1040 generates a current action candidate image representing the current action candidate and displays it on the notification device 1002 (P27).

When the driver who has confirmed the automatic driving information screen of the notification device 1002 inputs a selection operation for instructing the execution of the current action candidate to the input device 1004, the input device 1004 instructs the execution of the current action candidate. The operation instruction is transmitted to the driving support device 1040 (P28). The driving support device 1040 transmits a control command of the content instructing the execution of the current action candidate to the automatic driving control device 1030 (P29). The automatic driving control device 1030 identifies the current action candidate specified by the control command as a new current action, and outputs a new action instruction instructing the execution of the new current action to the driving operation unit 1010. Let the vehicle 1000 execute the current action (P30).

The automatic driving control device 1030 transmits new action information indicating a new current action to the driving support device 1040 (P31). The driving support device 1040 generates a new current action image based on the new current action information acquired from the automatic driving control device 1030, and displays it on the notification device 1002 (P32). The driving support device 1040 acquires the latest detection information output by the detection unit 1020 (P33), and determines a new current action candidate (P34). The driving support device 1040 causes the notification device 1002 to display a new current candidate image (P35).

In relation to P29 to P35 of FIG. 46, the detection information input unit 1052 of the driving support device 1040 indicates an action indicating the current action updated in response to the control command after the control command is transmitted to the automatic driving control device 1030. Information is acquired from the automatic operation control device 1030. The updated current action is the action specified by the control command, that is, the current action candidate specified by the driver. Then, the driving support device 1040 updates the contents of the automatic driving information screen 1103 of the notification device 1002 so as to reflect the latest state.

FIG. 47 is a flowchart showing an example of processing of the driving support device 1040. When the action information input unit 1054 acquires the action information output from the automatic operation control device 1030 (Y in S120), the image generation unit 1060 has the current action indicated by the action information and the current action stored in the storage unit 1042 in advance. Judges whether or not matches. Since the subsequent processes of S121 to S124 are the same as the processes of S102 to S105 of FIG. 41, the description thereof will be omitted. If the action information has not been acquired (N in S120), S121 to S124 are skipped.

When the detection information input unit 1052 acquires the detection information output from the detection unit 1020 (Y in S125), the candidate determination unit 1061 determines the detection information, the statistical information stored in the statistical information storage unit 1070, and the judgment standard holding unit. One or more current action candidates are determined based on the criteria held in 1071 (S126). The candidate determination unit 1061 determines whether or not the current action candidate determined in S126 matches the current action candidate stored in the storage unit 1042 in advance. When the current action candidate determined in S126 does not match the current action candidate previously stored in the storage unit 1042, that is, when the current action candidate is updated (Y in S127), the candidate determination unit 1061 is determined in S126. It is determined whether or not the current action candidate and the current action indicated by the action information match. Then, the current action candidate that matches the current action is excluded from the subsequent processing targets (S128).

The image generation unit 1060 generates a current action candidate image representing the current action candidate that has passed the filtering of S127 and S128 (S129), and the image output unit 1051 outputs the current candidate image to the notification device 1002 and displays it (S). S130). The candidate determination unit 1061 stores the information of the current action candidate for which the current action candidate image is generated in the storage unit 1042 (S131). If the detection information has not been acquired (N in S125), S126 to S131 are skipped, and if there is no update of the action candidate at present (N in S127), S128 to S131 are skipped. When the predetermined end condition is satisfied (Y in S132), the flow of this figure is ended, and when the end condition is not satisfied (N in S132), the process returns to S120.

As will be described in a modified example described later, when presenting a plurality of current action candidates to the driver, the candidate determination unit 1061 determines the driver's preference or operation pattern under the current surrounding conditions and running conditions of the vehicle 1000. Action candidates with a higher degree of matching may be ranked higher. Then, as in the case where a plurality of scheduled actions are input in the fifth embodiment, the image generation unit 1060 displays a plurality of current action candidate images corresponding to the plurality of current action candidates according to the order of each candidate. It may be generated by. Further, the image output unit 1051 may display a plurality of current action candidate images on the notification device 1002 in a mode according to the order of each candidate.

Further, as described in the fifth embodiment, the image generation unit 1060 generates data on the automatic driving information screen including both the current action image and the current action candidate image, and the image output unit 1051 generates the automatic driving information. The screen data may be output to the notification device 1002 and displayed. That is, both the current action image and the current action candidate image may be collectively output to the notification device 1002.

FIG. 48 is also a flowchart showing an example of processing of the driving support device 1040. When the current action candidate image is output from the image output unit 1051 to the notification device 1002 (Y in S140), the instruction unit 1063 starts measuring the elapsed time from the output (S141). When no operation instruction is input from the input device 1004 (N in S142) and the elapsed time reaches a predetermined threshold (Y in S143), the instruction unit 1063 issues a control command instructing the execution of the current action candidate to the command output unit. Output from 1055 to the automatic operation control device 1030 (S144). This threshold value is a time value predetermined by the developer's knowledge or experiment, and may be, for example, 5 seconds to 10 seconds. When a plurality of current action candidates are presented to the driver, the instruction unit 1063 may output a control command instructing execution of the highest-ranked current action candidate according to a predetermined order of each candidate. Good.

If the elapsed time does not reach the predetermined threshold value (N in S143), the process returns to S142. When an operation instruction for specifying the current action or the current action candidate is input (Y in S142), the instruction unit 1063 issues a control command for instructing the execution of the current action or the current action candidate specified in the operation instruction to the command output unit. Output from 1055 to the automatic operation control device 1030 (S145). This operation instruction may be a signal indicating that an operation for selecting one of the current action image and the current action candidate image on the automatic driving information screen has been input. If the action candidate image is not output at present (N in S140), the processing after S141 is skipped and the flow of this figure ends.

As described above, the driving support device 1040 of the sixth embodiment notifies the occupants (drivers, etc.) of the vehicle of the current behavior in automatic driving, and can immediately execute the current behavior in place of the current behavior. Propose action candidates. In this way, by presenting the driver with the latest action options of the vehicle, the automatic driving that further reflects the driver's intention can be realized, and the automatic driving that meets the driver's taste and the like can be realized. Further, since the current action candidates that can be selected by the driver are those that can be executed in the current surrounding conditions or running conditions of the vehicle, the driver can issue an instruction to change the automatic driving with peace of mind.

A modified example will be described. In the sixth embodiment, when the current action image 1104 and the current action candidate image 1110 have not received the operation instruction within the predetermined time displayed on the notification device 1002, the control command for executing the current action candidate is automatically operated. It was output to the control device 1030. That is, in the sixth embodiment, the vehicle is made to execute the action determined by the driving support device 1040 with priority over the action determined by the automatic driving control device 1030. As a modification, if the operation instruction is not received within the predetermined time, the instruction unit 1063 issues a control command for causing the vehicle to execute the current action represented by the current action image 1104 from the command output unit 1055. It may be output to. That is, the vehicle may preferentially execute the action determined by the automatic driving control device 1030 over the action determined by the driving support device 1040.

Another modification will be described. In the sixth embodiment, the driving support device 1040 stores statistical information indicating the relationship between the surrounding conditions and running conditions of the vehicle and the behavior of the vehicle in a local storage unit. As a modification, this statistical information may be stored in an information processing device outside the vehicle, for example, a database server connected via a communication network or the like. That is, the statistical information storage unit 1070 may be provided in a remote location (for example, on the cloud) outside the vehicle. The candidate determination unit 1061 of the driving support device 1040 accesses the statistical information stored in the statistical information storage unit outside the vehicle via the communication IF 1056 and the wireless device 1008, and obtains the statistical information and the detection information of the detection unit 1020. Therefore, the current action candidate may be determined. The same applies to the subsequent embodiments in which the statistical information is used.

Yet another modification will be described. As described in part, the statistical information stored in the statistical information storage unit 1070 may be information (driver model) that reflects the preferences or driving patterns of the vehicle occupants (typically the driver). It can be said that the statistical information of this modified example is an accumulation of the combination of the past environmental parameter values and the actual results of the current behavior under the environment. For example, the driving support device 1040 records the past environmental parameter values in the running of the vehicle and the latest operation (resulting in the latest behavior of the vehicle) by the driver in the case of the environmental parameter values in the statistical information storage unit 1070. A statistical information recording unit for sequentially recording the data may be further provided.

The candidate determination unit 1061 of this modification determines a plurality of current action candidates in which the difference from the currently detected environmental parameter value is associated with the environmental parameter value within a predetermined range with reference to the statistical information storage unit 1070. To do. At the same time, the priority (which can be said to be the priority) of each of the plurality of current action candidates is determined. For example, when the candidate determination unit 1061 determines a plurality of current action candidates, the current action candidate associated with the environmental parameter value closer to the currently detected environmental parameter value may be ranked higher. That is, among the plurality of current action candidates, the higher priority may be given to the current action candidate that matches the driver's taste or driving pattern.

The image generation unit 1060 generates a plurality of current action candidate images corresponding to the plurality of current action candidates determined by the candidate determination unit 1061, that is, an image representing the content of each candidate. The image output unit 1051 outputs the current action image and the plurality of current action candidate images to the notification device 1002 so as to display the current action image and the plurality of current action candidate images within a fixed field of view of the driver of the vehicle 1000. Further, the image output unit 1051 causes the notification device 1002 to display a plurality of current action candidate images in a mode according to the priority of each candidate.

For example, as described in the fifth embodiment, the image generation unit 1060 and the image output unit 1051 have a parametric display in which the priority is visualized by a histogram or the like, or a non-parametric display in which the order is visualized in the vertical and horizontal directions. May display a plurality of current action candidate images. Specifically, an image showing the ranking itself may be added to each of the current action candidate images, or the higher ranking current action candidate image may be displayed in a more visible manner, and the automatic driving information screen 1103 may be displayed. The current action candidate images may be arranged in descending order of rank from a predetermined position. Further, an image may be generated only for the current action candidates having a predetermined rank or higher, and may be displayed as a display target.

According to this modification, it is possible to support the selection of a candidate suitable for the occupant from a plurality of current action candidates. In addition, by determining the priority according to the driver model, the priority according to the driving pattern of the target person of the driver model (for example, the driver himself / herself, the passenger himself / herself, a standard or exemplary driver model, etc.) Can be presented. This modified example can also be applied to the generation and display of the current candidate image or the planned action candidate image in other embodiments.

In FIG. 45, while the current action image 1104 shows the current action "lane change", the upper current action candidate image 1110 shows the first current action candidate "deceleration", and the lower current action candidate image 1110. Indicates the second current action candidate, "advance (maintain speed)". As another example, which is not shown, the automatic driving control device 1030 (which can also be called an automatic driving control ECU) decides to execute the current action "change lane to the overtaking lane side" because the preceding vehicle has decelerated and the inter-vehicle distance has become shorter. However, it is assumed that the driving support device 1040 (which can also be said to be an HMI control ECU) indicates that the action is currently being executed. At this time, the driving support device 1040 is based on the detection that the right turn signal of the preceding vehicle is lit, and "the advantage of changing the lane of the own vehicle by changing the lane of the preceding vehicle to the overtaking lane side" May decrease. ” Then, the driving support device 1040 can immediately give an instruction (in other words, selectable) to "accelerate if possible after maintaining the lane" as a current action candidate instead of the current action "change lane to the overtaking lane side". Recommendations may be presented.

(Embodiment 7)
First, an outline will be described. During autonomous driving of a vehicle, the driver may not be able to grasp what the future behavior of the vehicle can be directed to change the control of autonomous driving, which may make the driver feel uneasy. was there.

Therefore, in the seventh embodiment, candidates for actions to be executed by the vehicle in the future in automatic driving (hereinafter referred to as "planned action candidates") are presented to the driver. Specifically, the automatic driving control device 1030 determines the current action, and the driving support device 1040 determines the planned action candidate. Then, the driving support device 1040 causes the notification device 1002 in the vehicle 1000 to display both the current action and the planned action candidate. A planned action candidate is an action that can be executed after the action that is currently being executed, and can be said to be an action plan that can be selected next. Further, the scheduled action candidate corresponds to the scheduled action of the fifth embodiment, and in the seventh embodiment, it can be said that the scheduled action is determined by the driving support device 1040 and presented to the driver as a selectable candidate.

In the following, the contents already explained in the previous embodiments will be omitted as appropriate. The configurations and operations described in this embodiment can be combined with or replaced with the configurations and operations described in other embodiments and modifications without departing from the spirit.

The functional block of the driving support device 1040 is the same as that of the sixth embodiment. That is, as shown in FIG. 44, the control unit 1041 includes an image generation unit 1060, a candidate determination unit 1061, a determination unit 1062, and an instruction unit 1063. Further, as shown in FIG. 42, the storage unit 1042 includes a statistical information storage unit 1070 and a determination standard holding unit 1071.

The determination criteria held by the determination criteria holding unit 1071 are the same as those in the sixth embodiment. That is, the determination criterion is data that defines actions that can be currently (immediately) executed by the vehicle 1000 for each pattern for a plurality of patterns of detection information input from the detection unit 1020.

The statistical information stored in the statistical information storage unit 1070 of the seventh embodiment also corresponds to the traveling history of FIG. 27 and the driver model of FIG. 28, and shows the relationship between the surrounding condition and the traveling state of the vehicle and the behavior of the vehicle. Statistical information (FIG. 43). However, the statistical information of the seventh embodiment includes a plurality of records in which the values of a plurality of types of environmental parameters indicating the surrounding conditions and the running state of the vehicle are associated with the actions (or action results) to be executed by the vehicle at a future time point. Information. In other words, it is information accumulated by associating an action executed at a future time point (after a predetermined time) with respect to the current environmental state with a parameter value indicating the current environmental state. The future time point may be 10 seconds to several minutes later. Further, each action defined by the statistical information is associated with information on the remaining time (for example, 10 seconds to several minutes) until the action is executed in the future. As described above, the statistical information may be stored in an external device of the vehicle 1000, and the driving support device 1040 may access the remote statistical information via the communication IF 1056 and the wireless device 1008.

The action information input unit 1054 of the driving support device 1040 acquires the action information indicating the current action to be executed by the automatic driving control device 1030 to the vehicle 1000 from the automatic driving control device 1030. The detection information input unit 1052 of the driving support device 1040 acquires the detection information indicating the detection result of the surrounding condition and the traveling state of the vehicle 1000 from the detection unit 1020.

The candidate determination unit 1061 determines one or more scheduled action candidates, which are actions that can be executed by the vehicle 1000 after the current action indicated by the action information, based on the detection information output from the detection unit 1020. Specifically, as in the sixth embodiment, the candidate determination unit 1061 uses one or more actions associated with the environmental parameter values that are close to the detection information among the actions specified in the statistical information as candidates. Extract. However, unlike the sixth embodiment, the candidate extracted from the statistical information of the seventh embodiment is a scheduled action candidate indicating an action to be executed by the vehicle at a future point in time. The scheduled action candidate may be an action scheduled to be executed following the current action of the vehicle 1000, and after the end of the current action of the vehicle 1000, with other actions in between, tens of seconds or minutes after the present. It may be an action scheduled to be performed. Both actions are defined by different remaining times in the statistics.

The image generation unit 1060 generates a current action image representing the current action indicated by the action information, and generates one or more scheduled action candidate images representing one or more scheduled action candidates. The image output unit 1051 outputs the current action image and the planned action candidate image to the notification device 1002 so as to display the current action image and the planned action candidate image within a certain field of view of the driver of the vehicle. The notification device 1002 displays an automatic driving information screen including a current action image and a planned action candidate image output from the driving support device 1040.

Further, when the candidate determination unit 1061 determines the scheduled action candidate, the remaining time information associated with the planned action candidate in the statistical information is further passed to the image generation unit 1060. When the image generation unit 1060 generates the scheduled action candidate image representing the scheduled action candidate, the image generation unit 1060 further generates a remaining time image representing the remaining time indicated by the remaining time information. The image output unit 1051 outputs the remaining time image in addition to the current action image and the scheduled action candidate image to the notification device 1002, so that the scheduled action candidate image including the remaining time image is displayed on the automatic driving information screen.

FIG. 49 shows an example of the automatic driving information screen. In the figure, an automatic driving information screen 1103 is shown in which the current action image 1104 is arranged in the main area 1100, and the planned action candidate image 1112 representing one scheduled action candidate and the remaining time image 1108 are arranged in the sub area 1102. The scheduled action candidate image 1112 in the figure shows an action plan (overtaking in this example) in which three single actions are combined as one scheduled action candidate.

Further, the remaining time image 1108 in the figure shows the length of the remaining time until the scheduled action candidate is executed as the ratio of the shaded area to the sub area 1102. For example, as the remaining time decreases, the proportion of the shaded area may be increased. Specifically, when the initial remaining time is 60 seconds and 20 seconds have passed from the start of displaying the scheduled action candidate image 1112, the area from the bottom of the sub-area 1102 to the lower third is set as the shaded area. The display mode of the remaining time image 1108 may be updated as described above. Further, when 40 seconds have passed from the start of displaying the scheduled action candidate image 1112, the display mode of the remaining time image 1108 may be updated so that the area two-thirds from the bottom of the sub area 1102 is a shaded area. .. In this way, the remaining time may be notified by the change of the pattern or the color, or the remaining time may be notified by another method such as displaying a timer object for counting the remaining time.

When the remaining time from the start of displaying the scheduled action candidate image 1112 to the execution of the scheduled action candidate becomes zero, the image output unit 1051 issues a command instructing the display of the scheduled action candidate image 1112 to end. It may be transmitted to 1002 to end the display of the scheduled action candidate image 1112. Further, the image generation unit 1060 generates a new scheduled action candidate image indicating the scheduled action candidate newly determined by the candidate determination unit 1061, and the image output unit 1051 transmits the new scheduled action candidate image to the notification device 1002. May be displayed.

FIG. 50 also shows an example of the automatic driving information screen. In the automatic driving information screen 1103 of FIGS. 50A to 50F, the planned action candidate image 1112 is arranged at the center position of the double circle, and the current action image 1104 is arranged in the outer circle. Further, the remaining time display area 1114 is provided in the outer circle, and the shorter the remaining time until the scheduled action candidate is executed, the larger the shaded area shown in the remaining time image 1108 (FIG. 50 (FIG. 50). a) to (e)). For example, when the initial remaining time is 60 seconds and 20 seconds have passed from the start of displaying the scheduled action candidate image 1112, one-third of the remaining time display area 1114 remains as a shaded area. The display mode of the time image 1108 may be updated.

In FIG. 50 (f), when the remaining time until the scheduled action candidate execution becomes zero, in other words, the elapsed time from the display start of the scheduled action candidate image 1112 is associated with the planned action candidate in the statistical information. The automatic operation information screen 1103 when the remaining time is reached is shown. In this example, the scheduled action candidate (acceleration) previously shown in the scheduled action candidate image 1112 is switched to the current action, and accordingly, the current action showing acceleration is changed from the current action image 1104 showing the lane change to the right. It has been switched to image 1104.

FIG. 51 also shows an example of the automatic driving information screen. The automatic operation information screen 1103 of FIG. 51 differs from the automatic operation information screen 1103 shown in FIG. 50 in the following three points. (1) Similar to the fifth embodiment, the scheduled action is acquired from the automatic driving control device 1030, and the scheduled action image 1106 showing the scheduled action is arranged at the center position of the double circle. (2) The point that the planned action candidate image 1112 is arranged around the inner circle. The upward triangle indicates acceleration, the downward triangle indicates deceleration, the left triangle indicates a lane change to the left, and the right triangle indicates a lane change to the right. (3) Remaining time image 1108 is a point showing the remaining time until the scheduled action represented by the scheduled action image 1106 is executed.

As shown in FIGS. 51 (a) to 51 (e), the scheduled action candidate (planned) presented to the driver while the remaining time until the scheduled action “acceleration” shown in the scheduled action image 1106 is executed decreases. The action candidate image 1112) is updated at any time. In FIG. 51 (f), when the remaining time until the scheduled action is executed becomes zero, in other words, the elapsed time from the start of displaying the scheduled action image 1106 reaches the remaining time notified by the automatic operation control device 1030. The automatic operation information screen 1103 in the case of the above is shown. In this example, the scheduled action (acceleration) previously shown in the scheduled action image 1106 is switched to the current action, and accordingly, the current action image 1104 showing the lane change to the right is changed to the current action image 1104 showing acceleration. It has been switched to.

The driver may press the cross-shaped button provided on the input device 1004 to instruct the execution of the scheduled action candidate represented by the scheduled action candidate image 1112. For example, while the scheduled action candidate image 1112 showing an upward triangle is being displayed, the driver may instruct the execution of the acceleration indicated by the scheduled action candidate image 1112 by selecting the upper button on the cross button.

FIG. 52 also shows an example of the automatic driving information screen. On the automatic driving information screen 1103, two scheduled action candidate images 1112 representing two scheduled action candidates (two action plans) are displayed. Further, on the automatic driving information screen 1103, the remaining time image 1108 showing the remaining time until each scheduled action candidate is executed is shown by a plurality of time indicators 1109 as in the fifth embodiment. Further, on the automatic driving information screen 1103, a selection frame 1116 for causing the driver to select a specific scheduled action candidate from the plurality of scheduled action candidates represented by the plurality of scheduled action candidate images 1112 is displayed. The driver inputs to the input device 1004 an operation of designating a desired scheduled action candidate by the selection frame 1116.

When an operation for designating a scheduled action candidate is input via the operation input unit 1050, the image generation unit 1060 of the driving support device 1040 gives the driver "execution" or "reservation" of the designated scheduled action candidate. Generate an inquiry image of the content to be inquired. "Execution" means having the vehicle execute the planned action candidate immediately. The “reservation” is a timing after a predetermined time from the operation instruction for designating the reservation, and means that the scheduled action candidate is executed at the timing when the vehicle becomes executable. The image output unit 1051 outputs the inquiry image to the notification device 1002 and displays it.

The instruction unit 1063 issues a control command for causing the vehicle 1000 to execute the scheduled action candidate at the first timing when an operation for specifying "execution" is input during the display of the inquiry image via the operation input unit 1050. Is output to the automatic operation control device 1030. On the other hand, when an operation to specify "reservation" is input while displaying the inquiry image, the control command for causing the vehicle 1000 to execute the scheduled action candidate is automatically executed at the second timing after the first timing. Output to the operation control device 1030.

The processing sequence of the vehicle 1000 in the seventh embodiment is the same as the processing sequence of FIG. 46 described in the sixth embodiment. However, the determination of the current action candidate and the display of the current action candidate image are replaced with the determination of the planned action candidate and the display of the planned action candidate image (P26, P27). Further, the input device 1004 notifies the driving support device 1040 of the selection operation of the scheduled action candidate (P28). The driving support device 1040 outputs a control command instructing execution of the scheduled action candidate to the automatic driving control device 1030 (P29).

In relation to P29 to P35 of FIG. 46, the detection information input unit 1052 of the driving support device 1040 indicates an action indicating the current action updated in response to the control command after the control command is transmitted to the automatic driving control device 1030. Information is acquired from the automatic operation control device 1030. The updated current action is the action specified by the control command, that is, the scheduled action candidate specified by the driver. The driving support device 1040 updates the content of the automatic driving information screen 1103 of the notification device 1002 so as to reflect the latest behavior of the vehicle.

FIG. 53 is a flowchart showing an example of processing of the driving support device 1040. When the action information input unit 1054 acquires the action information output from the automatic operation control device 1030 (Y in S150), the image generation unit 1060 has the current action indicated by the action information and the current action stored in the storage unit 1042 in advance. Judges whether or not matches. Subsequent processes of S151 to S154 are the same as the processes of S102 to S105 of FIG. 41, and thus the description thereof will be omitted. If the action information has not been acquired (N in S150), S151 to S154 are skipped.

When the detection information input unit 1052 acquires the detection information output from the detection unit 1020 (Y in S155), the candidate determination unit 1061 is based on the detection information and the statistical information accumulated in the statistical information storage unit 1070. Determine one or more scheduled action candidates (S156). The image generation unit 1060 determines whether or not the scheduled action candidate determined in S156 matches the scheduled action candidate stored in the storage unit 1042 in advance. When the scheduled action candidate determined in S156 does not match the scheduled action candidate stored in the storage unit 1042 in advance, that is, when the scheduled action candidate is updated (Y in S157), the image generation unit 1060 is the scheduled action candidate. A planned action candidate image representing the above is generated (S158).

The image generation unit 1060 further identifies the remaining time until execution associated with the scheduled action candidate in advance in the statistical information, and further generates a remaining time image representing the remaining time in S158. The image output unit 1051 outputs the scheduled action candidate image and the remaining time image to the notification device 1002 to display the automatic operation information screen (S159). The image generation unit 1060 stores the information indicating the scheduled action candidate that generated the image in the storage unit 1042 (S160), and starts measuring the elapsed time from outputting (displaying) the scheduled action candidate image (S161). ). When the predetermined end condition is satisfied (Y in S162), the flow of this figure is ended, and when the end condition is not satisfied (N in S162), the process returns to S150.

When there is no input of detection information (N in S155) or the scheduled action candidate is not updated (N in S157), the image generation unit 1060 determines whether or not a predetermined time has elapsed from the start of measurement of the elapsed time. .. This predetermined time is a unit time for updating the remaining time image, and may be, for example, the time allocated to one time indicator 1109. When it is detected that a predetermined time has elapsed from the start of measurement of the elapsed time (Y in S163), the image generation unit 1060 updates the remaining time image (S164). The image output unit 1051 outputs the updated remaining time image to the notification device 1002 and displays it (S165). As a result, for example, the shaded area in the remaining time display area 1114 of FIGS. 49 and 50 is expanded, and one time indicator 1109 of FIG. 52 is switched from the lit state to the extinguished state. If the predetermined time has not elapsed from the start of measurement of the elapsed time (N in S163), S164 and S165 are skipped.

FIG. 54 is also a flowchart showing an example of processing of the driving support device 1040. After the image output unit 1051 outputs the scheduled action candidate image to the notification device 1002, while the scheduled action candidate image is being displayed on the automatic operation information screen of the notification device 1002 (Y in S170), the scheduled action candidate (planned action candidate image) is displayed. If not selected (N in S171), the process returns to S170. When the scheduled action candidate is selected on the automatic driving information screen (Y in S171), the candidate determination unit 1061 temporarily stops the new scheduled action candidate determination process (S172).

The determination unit 1062 determines whether or not the vehicle 1000 can immediately execute the selected scheduled action candidate (hereinafter, also referred to as “selection action”) (S173). Specifically, the determination unit 1062 can cause the vehicle to currently execute the selection action by referring to the latest detection information output from the detection unit 1020 and the determination criteria held in the determination criterion holding unit 1071. Judge whether or not. Here, even a selective action that cannot be immediately executed by the vehicle may be executed if the surrounding environment or the traveling state of the vehicle changes. Therefore, in the seventh embodiment, it is possible to reserve the selection action. Reservation can be said to be an act of instructing the selection action to be executed at a possible timing within a certain time range.

The image generation unit 1060 generates an inquiry image for inquiring the driver about the immediate execution or reservation of the selection action, and the image output unit 1051 outputs the inquiry image to the notification device 1002 and displays it (S174). FIG. 55 shows an example of the automatic driving information screen. On the automatic driving information screen 1103 of FIG. 55 (a), the scheduled action candidate image 1112 selected on the automatic driving information screen 1103 of FIG. 52 is displayed. Further, on the automatic operation information screen 1103 of the figure, an inquiry image including the execution button 1118 and the reservation button 1120 is displayed. When the determination unit 1062 determines that the selection action can be executed immediately, the image generation unit 1060 generates an inquiry image including both the execution button 1118 and the reservation button 1120. On the other hand, when the determination unit 1062 determines that the selection action cannot be executed immediately, an inquiry image including the reservation button 1120 but not the execution button 1118 is generated. As a result, selection actions that cannot be executed immediately can only be reserved.

Returning to FIG. 54, when “execution” of the selected action is selected on the automatic driving information screen (N in S175), the operation input unit 1050 receives an operation instruction instructing immediate execution of the selected action from the input device 1004. This operation instruction may be a signal indicating that the scheduled action candidate represented by the scheduled action candidate image is immediately executed in the inquiry image. The instruction unit 1063 transmits a control command instructing the immediate execution of the selected action from the command output unit 1055 to the automatic operation control device 1030 (S176). This control command can be said to be a control command instructing the vehicle to immediately execute the planned action candidate represented by the planned action candidate image instead of the current action represented by the current action image on the automatic driving information screen.

After that, by the processing of S150 to S153 of FIG. 53, the current action image of the automatic driving information screen changes to the one showing the selected action. The candidate determination unit 1061 restarts the new scheduled action candidate determination process (S177). If the scheduled action candidate image is not displayed (N in S170), the subsequent processing is skipped and the flow of this figure ends.

When "reservation" of the selected action is selected on the automatic driving information screen (Y in S175), the operation input unit 1050 receives an operation instruction instructing the reservation of the selected action from the input device 1004. The image generation unit 1060 generates a cancellation time setting image for causing the driver to set the time until the execution of the selection action (hereinafter, also referred to as “reservation action”) for which the reservation is instructed is canceled. The image output unit 1051 outputs the cancellation time setting image to the notification device 1002 and displays it (S178). FIG. 55B shows an automatic operation information screen 1103 including a cancellation time setting image 1122. In the cancellation time setting image 1122 of the figure, the cancellation time can be set between 30 seconds and 10 minutes. The process of determining a new scheduled action candidate is stopped during the reservation, but the driver sets the cancellation time of the reservation so that the new scheduled action candidate is presented to the driver after the reservation is cancelled.

Returning to FIG. 54, when the driver inputs an operation for setting the reservation cancellation time to the input device 1004, the operation input unit 1050 receives a signal indicating the set cancellation time from the input device 1004 (S179). The indicator unit 1063 starts measuring the elapsed time from the start of reservation (S180). The image generation unit 1060 generates a reservation behavior image, which is an image showing the reservation behavior, and a time limit image, which is an image showing the length until the reservation cancellation time. The image output unit 1051 outputs the reserved action image and the time limit image to the notification device 1002 and displays them (S181). The reserved action image is an image having a display mode different from that of the planned action candidate image, and is an image showing that a specific action selected by the driver is being reserved. For example, it may be an image to which a predetermined symbol indicating that a reservation is in progress is added.

FIG. 56 shows an example of the automatic driving information screen. In the automatic driving information screen 1103 of FIG. 56A, the reserved action image 1124 and the time limit image 1126 are displayed in the sub-region 1102. In this example, the time limit image 1126 represents the length of time until reservation cancellation by a plurality of time indicators 1109. The image generation unit 1060 generates the reserved action image 1124 in a mode different from the mode of the planned action candidate image 1112. Alternatively, the image output unit 1051 displays the reserved action image 1124 in a mode different from that of the scheduled action candidate image 1112. As a result, on the automatic driving information screen 1103, the driver can easily determine whether the reservation action candidate is being proposed or has already been reserved.

Specifically, when the scheduled action candidate is presented to the driver as in the automatic driving information screen 1103 of FIG. 52, the remaining time image 1108 is arranged on the left side of the scheduled action candidate image 1112. On the other hand, when the reserved action is presented to the driver as shown in the automatic driving information screen 1103 of FIG. 56A, the time limit image 1126 is arranged on the right side of the reserved action image 1124. As a modification, the background colors of the planned action candidate image 1112 and the reserved action image 1124 may be different, or the display size may be different. Further, an image of a predetermined symbol indicating that the reservation is being made may be added to the reserved behavior image 1124.

Returning to FIG. 54, whether or not the determination unit 1062 can cause the vehicle to immediately execute the reservation action according to the latest detection information output from the detection unit 1020 and the determination criteria held in the determination criterion holding unit 1071. (S182). If it is possible to execute the reserved action immediately (Y in S183), the instruction unit 1063 causes the command output unit 1055 to transmit a control command instructing the immediate execution of the reserved action to the automatic operation control device 1030 (S176). ). After that, by the processing of S150 to S153 of FIG. 53, the current action image of the automatic driving information screen changes to the one showing the reserved action.

When it is determined that the reservation action cannot be executed immediately (N in S183) and the cancellation time elapses (Y in S184), the candidate determination unit 1061 determines a new scheduled action candidate without instructing the execution of the reservation action. Is restarted (S177), and the flow of this figure is terminated. If the cancellation time has not elapsed (N in S184) and the predetermined time for updating the time limit image has not elapsed (N in S185), the process returns to S182 and the possibility of immediate execution of the reserved action is determined again. When the predetermined time for updating the time limit image has elapsed (Y in S185), the image generation unit 1060 updates the time limit image. The image output unit 1051 outputs the updated time limit image to the notification device 1002 and displays it (S186). Then, the process returns to S182, and it is determined again whether or not the reserved action can be executed immediately.

FIG. 56B shows the automatic operation information screen 1103 at a time point after FIG. 56A. In FIGS. 56A and 56B, the current behavior of the vehicle represented by the current behavior image 1104 is switched from deceleration to forward (speed maintenance), but the reservation behavior cannot be executed yet, so in the sub-region 1102. Only the time limit image 1126 has changed. Specifically, by changing a part of the time indicator 1109 from the lit state to the extinguished state, the driver is notified that the remaining time until the reservation is canceled has decreased. When the elapsed time from the reservation start reaches the cancellation time (for example, 5 minutes), the display of the reservation action image 1124 ends, and the automatic driving information screen 1103 (FIG. 52 etc.).

As described above, the driving support device 1040 of the seventh embodiment can notify the occupants (drivers and the like) of the vehicle of the current behavior in the automatic driving and instruct the occupants (drivers and the like) to change the control of the automatic driving. Present the future behavior of the vehicle to the driver. In this way, by presenting the driver with options for future actions of the vehicle in automatic driving, it is possible to realize automatic driving that further reflects the driver's intention and that is in line with the driver's taste and the like. In addition, the driver's anxiety about automatic driving can be suppressed. Further, according to the driving support device 1040 of the seventh embodiment, even if the action cannot be executed at present, it is possible to reserve the action for the future, so that the automatic driving according to the driver's taste and the like is further realized. It will be easier.

A modified example will be described. In the seventh embodiment, the driving support device 1040 determines whether or not the driver can immediately execute the selection action. As a modification, the automatic driving control device 1030 may determine whether or not the driver can immediately execute the selected action. In this case, the driving support device 1040 does not have to execute this determination process. The driving support device 1040 may generate an inquiry image in which both immediate execution and reservation can be selected and present it to the driver regardless of whether or not the selection action by the driver can be immediately executed.

Further, when the instruction unit 1063 of the driving support device 1040 receives an operation instruction indicating immediate execution of the selection operation as the driver's operation for the inquiry image, the instruction unit 1063 commands a first control command for causing the vehicle to immediately execute the selection operation. It may be transmitted from the output unit 1055 to the automatic operation control device 1030. Further, as a driver's operation on the inquiry image, when an operation instruction indicating a reservation of the selection action is received, the automatic operation control device 1030 is executed from the command output unit 1055 as a second control command for causing the vehicle to execute the selection action after a predetermined time. You may send it to. The second control command may be, for example, a control command instructing the cancellation time setting image 1122 to execute the selection action within the cancellation time set by the driver. In other words, it may be a control command instructing to cancel the execution of the selected action when the cancellation time has elapsed.

Another modification will be described. Although not mentioned in the seventh embodiment, the configuration for causing the vehicle to execute the planned action candidate may be the same as the configuration described in the sixth embodiment. That is, the instruction unit 1063 of the driving support device 1040 issues a control command to cause the vehicle to execute the planned action candidate after the current action image 1104 and the scheduled action candidate image 1112 are displayed on the automatic driving information screen 1103 for a predetermined time. It may be transmitted from 1055 to the automatic operation control device 1030.

Further, when the current action image 1104 and the scheduled action candidate image 1112 are displayed on the automatic driving information screen 1103 and the operation instruction for designating the vehicle action is not input, the instruction unit 1063 sets the scheduled action candidate. The control command to be executed by the vehicle may be transmitted from the command output unit 1055 to the automatic driving control device 1030. Furthermore, the instruction unit 1063 has received an operation instruction to select a scheduled action candidate (scheduled action candidate image 1112) within a predetermined time in which the current action image 1104 and the scheduled action candidate image 1112 are displayed on the automatic driving information screen 1103. In this case, a control command for causing the vehicle to execute the scheduled action candidate may be transmitted from the command output unit 1055 to the automatic driving control device 1030.

Yet another modification will be described. The statistical information stored in the statistical information storage unit 1070 may be information (driver model) that reflects the preferences or driving patterns of the vehicle occupants (typically the driver). It can be said that the statistical information of this modified example is an accumulation of a combination of past environmental parameter values and actual results of planned actions under that environment. For example, the driving support device 1040 stores the past environmental parameter values in the running of the vehicle and the operation at a predetermined future time point by the driver in the case of the environmental parameter values (the future behavior of the vehicle as a result) in the statistical information storage unit 1070. A statistical information recording unit for sequentially recording the statistical information of the above may be further provided.

The candidate determination unit 1061 of this modification determines a plurality of planned action candidates in which the difference from the currently detected environmental parameter value is associated with the environmental parameter value within a predetermined range with reference to the statistical information storage unit 1070. To do. At the same time, the priority (which can be said to be the priority) of each of the plurality of planned action candidates is determined. For example, when the candidate determination unit 1061 determines a plurality of scheduled action candidates, the candidate action candidate associated with the environmental parameter value closer to the currently detected environmental parameter value may be ranked higher. That is, among a plurality of scheduled action candidates, the scheduled action candidate that matches the driver's preference or driving pattern may be given a higher priority.

The image generation unit 1060 generates a plurality of scheduled action candidate images corresponding to the plurality of planned action candidates determined by the candidate determination unit 1061, that is, an image representing the content of each candidate. The image output unit 1051 outputs the current action image and the plurality of scheduled action candidate images to the notification device 1002 so as to display the current action image and the plurality of scheduled action candidate images within a certain field of view of the driver of the vehicle 1000. Further, the image output unit 1051 causes the notification device 1002 to display a plurality of scheduled action candidate images in a mode according to the priority of each candidate.

For example, as described in the fifth embodiment, the image generation unit 1060 and the image output unit 1051 have a parametric display in which the priority is visualized by a histogram or the like, or a non-parametric display in which the order is visualized in the vertical and horizontal directions. May display a plurality of scheduled action candidate images. Specifically, an image showing the ranking itself may be added to each of the scheduled action candidate images, or the higher ranking scheduled action candidate image may be displayed in a manner with higher visibility, and the automatic driving information screen 1103 may be displayed. Scheduled action candidate images may be arranged in descending order of rank from a predetermined position. In addition, an image may be generated only for scheduled action candidates having a predetermined rank or higher, and may be displayed as a display target. According to this modification, it is possible to support the selection of a candidate suitable for the occupant from a plurality of planned action candidates. In addition, by determining the priority according to the driver model, the priority according to the driving pattern of the target person of the driver model (for example, the driver himself / herself, the passenger himself / herself, a standard or exemplary driver model, etc.) Can be presented.

Although not shown, as another example, the preceding vehicle has decelerated and the inter-vehicle distance has become shorter, but since vehicles faster than the own vehicle are continuously approaching from behind the overtaking lane, the automatic driving control device 1030 , It is assumed that the execution of the current action "deceleration" is determined, and the driving support device 1040 indicates that the current action is being executed. At this time, the driving support device 1040 may determine that "the merit will be greater if there is no vehicle approaching from behind the overtaking lane" based on the detection information of the detection unit 1020. Then, after the current action "deceleration", the driving support device 1040 recommends and presents "change lane to the overtaking lane side" as a scheduled action candidate that can give a driving control instruction at the right timing to the driver as an option that can reserve the instruction. You may.

(Embodiment 8)
First, an outline will be described. Even if the planned future behavior of the vehicle (hereinafter referred to as "scheduled behavior") is presented to the driver during automatic driving of the vehicle, the vehicle is executed before the scheduled behavior. In some cases, the driver could not grasp what action could be instructed as an action to cause. As a result, the driver may feel uneasy.

Therefore, in the eighth embodiment, in addition to the scheduled action planned by the automatic driving controller, candidates for actions to be executed by the vehicle before the scheduled action are presented to the driver. The candidate presented to the driver in the eighth embodiment is a candidate for action to be immediately executed by the vehicle (hereinafter referred to as "current action candidate"). Specifically, the automatic driving control device 1030 determines the scheduled action, and the driving support device 1040 determines the current action candidate. Then, the driving support device 1040 causes the notification device 1002 in the vehicle 1000 to display both the scheduled action and the current action candidate.

In the following, the contents already explained in the previous embodiments will be omitted as appropriate. The configuration or operation described in this embodiment can be combined with or replaced with the configuration or operation described in other embodiments or modifications without departing from the spirit.

In the eighth embodiment, it can be said that the display of the current action in the sixth embodiment is replaced with the display of the scheduled action, and the functional block of the driving support device 1040 of the eighth embodiment is the same as that of the sixth embodiment. That is, the control unit 1041 includes an image generation unit 1060, a candidate determination unit 1061, a determination unit 1062, and an instruction unit 1063. Further, the storage unit 1042 includes a statistical information storage unit 1070 and a determination standard holding unit 1071.

The statistical information stored in the statistical information storage unit 1070 and the judgment standard held in the judgment standard holding unit 1071 are the same as those in the sixth embodiment. That is, the statistical information storage unit 1070 stores statistical information for determining the current action candidate, and the judgment standard holding unit 1071 holds the judgment standard of the action that can be immediately executed according to the environmental parameters. As described above, the statistical information may be stored in an external device of the vehicle 1000, and the driving support device 1040 may access the remote statistical information via the communication IF 1056 and the wireless device 1008.

The action information input unit 1054 provides the action information (“planned action information” of the fifth embodiment) indicating the planned action, which is the action planned to be executed by the vehicle 1000 at the future time point, in the automatic driving control device 1030. Get from. The action information input unit 1054 further acquires the remaining time information indicating the time from the current time until the scheduled action is executed from the automatic operation control device 1030. As shown in FIG. 35, the remaining time information is included in the behavior information data set acquired from the automatic driving control device 1030.

The detection information input unit 1052 acquires the detection information indicating the detection result of the surrounding condition and the traveling state of the vehicle 1000 from the detection unit 1020. The candidate determination unit 1061 and the determination unit 1062 of the driving support device 1040 determine an action that can be executed by the vehicle 1000 before the scheduled action indicated by the action information based on the detection information. In the seventh embodiment, as the action, an action that can be immediately executed by the vehicle 1000 is currently determined as an action candidate. As a modification, an action that is before the execution time of the scheduled action indicated by the action information but is executed later than the current time, for example, an action that is executed after the current action being executed by the vehicle 1000 is completed. It may be decided as an action candidate.

Specifically, the candidate determination unit 1061 is associated with an environment parameter value that approximates the detection information among a plurality of types of actions defined in the statistical information of the statistical information storage unit 1070, as in the sixth embodiment. Determine one or more actions as tentative current action candidates. Similar to the sixth embodiment, the determination unit 1062 also refers to the detection information output from the detection unit 1020 and the determination criteria of the determination criterion holding unit 1071, and is a provisional current action candidate determined by the candidate determination unit 1061. Each of these determines whether the vehicle can now (immediately) execute. Then, the candidate that the vehicle can currently execute is determined as the final current action candidate to be presented to the driver.

The image generation unit 1060 generates a scheduled action image representing the scheduled action indicated by the action information, and generates a current action candidate image representing the final current action candidate determined by the candidate determination unit 1061 and the determination unit 1062. The image output unit 1051 outputs the planned action image and the current action candidate image to the notification device 1002 so as to display the planned action image and the current action candidate image within a fixed field of view of the driver of the vehicle 1000.

Further, the image generation unit 1060 further generates a remaining time image representing the time until the scheduled action updated by the remaining time information input from the automatic operation control device 1030 is executed. The image output unit 1051 further outputs the remaining time image to the notification device 1002, and displays the scheduled action image to which the remaining time image is added and the current action candidate image within a fixed field of view of the driver of the vehicle 1000. The notification device 1002 displays an automatic operation information screen including these images.

FIG. 57 shows an example of the automatic driving information screen. In the automatic driving information screen 1103 of FIGS. 57A to 57E, the planned action image 1106 and the remaining time image 1108 are arranged in the inner circle, and the current action candidate image 1110 is arranged in the outer circle. The entire inner circle is the remaining time display area, and the remaining time image 1108 is updated so that the range of the remaining time image 1108 shown in shading increases as the remaining time until the scheduled action is executed decreases. Regarding the current action candidate image 1110, for example, an upward triangle indicates acceleration, a downward triangle indicates deceleration, a left triangle indicates a lane change to the left, and a right triangle indicates a lane change to the right. For example, in the automatic driving information screen 1103 of FIG. 57 (b), two current action candidates "change lane to the left" and "deceleration" are presented.

As shown in FIGS. 57 (a) to 57 (d), the current action candidate image 1110 is updated at any time according to the change in the surrounding condition or the running state of the vehicle while the remaining time until the scheduled action is executed decreases. The driver may press the cross-shaped button provided on the input device 1004 to instruct the execution of the current action candidate represented by the current action candidate image 1110. For example, the driver may instruct the execution of the deceleration indicated by the current action candidate image 1110 by selecting the lower button on the cross button while the current action candidate image 1110 showing the downward triangle is displayed.

FIG. 57 (e) shows the result of the driver selecting one of the current action candidates (current action candidate image 1110) before the acceleration shown in the scheduled action image 1106 of FIG. 57 (d) is executed. There is. For example, when the driver selects the current action candidate "deceleration" on the automatic driving information screen 1103 of FIG. 57 (d), the current action of the vehicle is switched to deceleration. At the same time, on the automatic driving information screen 1103 of FIG. 57 (e), the planned action of the vehicle determined by the automatic driving control device 1030 (scheduled action image 1106) and the current action candidate of the vehicle determined by the driving support device 1040 (current action). Candidate image 1110) is changing.

Since the processing sequence of the vehicle 1000 in the eighth embodiment is the same as the processing sequence of FIG. 46 described in the sixth embodiment, the description thereof will be omitted. However, the acquisition of the behavior information indicating the current behavior (P23, P31) and the generation and output of the current behavior image (P24, P32) are the acquisition of the behavior information indicating the scheduled behavior and the remaining time, the generation of the scheduled behavior image, and the generation of the scheduled behavior image, respectively. Replaces the output.

FIG. 58 is a flowchart showing an example of processing of the driving support device 1040. Since the processes of S190 to S199 in the same figure relating to the generation and display of the scheduled action image are the same as the processes of S100, S106 to S110, and S112 to S114 of FIG. 41 described in the fifth embodiment, the description thereof will be omitted. .. When the detection information input unit 1052 acquires the detection information output from the detection unit 1020 (Y in S200), the candidate determination unit 1061 determines the detection information, the statistical information stored in the statistical information storage unit 1070, and the judgment standard holding unit. One or more current action candidates are determined based on the criteria held in 1071 (S201). The image generation unit 1060 determines whether or not the current action candidate determined in S201 matches the current action candidate stored in the storage unit 1042 in advance.

When the current action candidate determined in S201 does not match the current action candidate stored in the storage unit 1042 in advance, that is, when the current action candidate is updated (Y in S202), the image generation unit 1060 is the current action candidate. A current action candidate image representing the above is generated (S203). The image output unit 1051 outputs the current action candidate image to the notification device 1002 and displays it (S204). The image generation unit 1060 stores the information of the current action candidate that generated the current action candidate image in the storage unit 1042 (S205). If the detection information has not been acquired (N in S200), S201 to S205 are skipped, and if there is no update of the action candidate at present (N in S202), S203 to S205 are skipped. When the predetermined end condition is satisfied (Y in S206), the flow of this figure is ended, and when the end condition is not satisfied (N in S206), the process returns to S190.

The processing of the driving support device 1040 related to the selection of the current action candidate by the driver is the same as that of the sixth embodiment, and the processing flow is the same as the processing flow of FIG. 48. The length of time for accepting the selection of the current action candidate may be a predetermined fixed value, and is a value less than the remaining time until the scheduled action is executed determined by the automatic operation control device 1030 (for example, remaining time -5 seconds). It may be.

As described above, the driving support device 1040 of the eighth embodiment notifies the occupants (drivers, etc.) of the vehicle of the planned actions planned in the automatic driving, and is currently capable of immediate execution. Propose action candidates. In this way, by presenting the driver with the latest action options of the vehicle, the automatic driving that further reflects the driver's intention can be realized, and the automatic driving that meets the driver's taste and the like can be realized. Further, since the current action candidates that can be selected by the driver are those that can be executed in the current surrounding conditions or running conditions of the vehicle, the driver can issue an instruction to change the automatic driving with peace of mind.

The modification described in the sixth embodiment can be applied to the eighth embodiment and has the same effect. For example, the statistical information stored in the statistical information storage unit 1070 may be information (driver model) that reflects the preferences or driving patterns of the vehicle occupants (typically the driver). The candidate determination unit 1061 may refer to the statistical information storage unit 1070 to determine a plurality of current action candidates in which the difference from the currently detected environmental parameter value is associated with the environmental parameter value within a predetermined range. .. At the same time, the priority of each of the plurality of current action candidates may be determined. The image generation unit 1060 may generate a plurality of current action candidate images corresponding to the plurality of current action candidates determined by the candidate determination unit 1061, that is, an image representing the content of each candidate. Even if the image output unit 1051 outputs the planned action image and the plurality of current action candidate images to the notification device 1002 so as to display the planned action image and the plurality of current action candidate images within a fixed field of view of the driver of the vehicle 1000. Good. Further, the image output unit 1051 may display a plurality of current action candidate images on the notification device 1002 in a mode according to the priority of each candidate.

Although not shown, another example of presenting a planned action (which can be said to be a driving control plan for the future) and a current action candidate (which can be said to be a situation-adaptive recommendation about the present) will be described. Here, based on the fact that there is no merging vehicle while driving in the leftmost lane approaching the merging channel, the automatic driving control device 1030 executes the scheduled action "lane keeping" after the current driving action. It is determined that the driving support device 1040 indicates that "lane keeping" is scheduled to be executed. At this time, the driving support device 1040 may determine that "if a merging vehicle appears before approaching the merging flow path, a sudden operation is required and the demerit becomes greater". Then, the driving support device 1040 can immediately issue an instruction "change lane from the leftmost lane to the right lane" as a current action candidate that can give a driving control instruction before the "lane keeping" that the vehicle 1000 plans to execute after this. Recommendations may be presented as an option.

(Embodiment 9)
First, an outline will be described. Even if the planned future behavior of the vehicle (hereinafter referred to as "scheduled behavior") is presented to the driver during automatic driving of the vehicle, it can be instructed as an alternative behavior to the scheduled behavior. Sometimes the driver couldn't figure out what the behavior was. As a result, the driver may feel uneasy.

Therefore, in the ninth embodiment, in addition to the scheduled action planned by the automatic driving controller, the scheduled action candidate, which is a candidate for the action to be executed by the vehicle at a future point in time, is presented to the driver instead of the scheduled action. Specifically, the automatic driving control device 1030 determines the scheduled action, and the driving support device 1040 determines the scheduled action candidate. Then, the driving support device 1040 causes both the scheduled action and the scheduled action candidate to be displayed on the notification device 1002 in the vehicle 1000. It can be said that the scheduled action candidate is an action different from the scheduled action determined by the automatic driving controller, and can be an action scheduled to be executed by the vehicle.

In the following, the contents already explained in the previous embodiments will be omitted as appropriate. The configuration or operation described in this embodiment can be combined with or replaced with the configuration or operation described in other embodiments or modifications without departing from the spirit.

In the ninth embodiment, it can be said that the display of the current action in the seventh embodiment is replaced with the display of the scheduled action, and the functional block of the driving support device 1040 of the ninth embodiment is the same as that of the seventh embodiment. That is, the control unit 1041 includes an image generation unit 1060, a candidate determination unit 1061, a determination unit 1062, and an instruction unit 1063. Further, the storage unit 1042 includes a statistical information storage unit 1070 and a determination standard holding unit 1071.

The statistical information stored in the statistical information storage unit 1070 and the judgment standard held in the judgment standard holding unit 1071 are also the same as those in the seventh embodiment. That is, the statistical information storage unit 1070 stores statistical information for determining the planned action candidate, and the judgment standard holding unit 1071 holds the judgment standard of the action that can be immediately executed according to the environmental parameters. As described above, the statistical information may be stored in an external device of the vehicle 1000, and the driving support device 1040 may access the remote statistical information via the communication IF 1056 and the wireless device 1008.

The action information input unit 1054 provides the action information (“planned action information” of the fifth embodiment) indicating the planned action, which is the action planned to be executed by the vehicle 1000 at the future time point, in the automatic driving control device 1030. Get from. The action information input unit 1054 further acquires the remaining time information indicating the time from the current time until the scheduled action is executed from the automatic operation control device 1030. As shown in FIG. 35, the remaining time information is included in the behavior information data set acquired from the automatic driving control device 1030.

The detection information input unit 1052 acquires the detection information indicating the detection result of the surrounding condition and the traveling state of the vehicle 1000 from the detection unit 1020. The candidate determination unit 1061 determines one or more scheduled action candidates that are different from the scheduled action indicated by the action information and can be the scheduled action to be executed by the vehicle 1000 based on the detection information output from the detection unit 1020. To decide. It can be said that the scheduled action candidate is an action that can be executed by the vehicle 1000 instead of the scheduled action indicated by the action information. Specifically, as in the seventh embodiment, the candidate determination unit 1061 schedules one or more actions associated with the environmental parameter values that are close to the detection information among the actions specified in the statistical information. Extract as a candidate.

If the candidate determination unit 1061 has the same candidate as the scheduled action indicated by the action information among the one or more scheduled action candidates extracted from the statistical information, the candidate determination unit 1061 excludes the candidate from the target to be presented to the driver. In other words, the candidate determination unit 1061 determines, among the scheduled action candidates extracted from the statistical information, a candidate different from the planned action indicated by the action information as a presentation target to the driver. This prevents the driver from being presented with the same scheduled action candidate as the scheduled action.

The image generation unit 1060 generates a scheduled action image representing the scheduled action indicated by the action information, and one or more schedules representing one or more scheduled action candidates determined to be presented to the driver by the candidate determination unit 1061. Generate action candidate images. The image output unit 1051 outputs the scheduled action image and the scheduled action candidate image to the notification device 1002 so as to display the scheduled action image and the planned action candidate image within a fixed field of view of the driver of the vehicle. The notification device 1002 displays an automatic driving information screen including a scheduled action image and a scheduled action candidate image output from the driving support device 1040.

Further, the image generation unit 1060 further generates a first remaining time image representing the time until the scheduled action updated by the remaining time information input from the automatic operation control device 1030 is executed. The image output unit 1051 further outputs the first remaining time image to the notification device 1002 in association with the scheduled action image, so that the scheduled action image to which the first remaining time image is added is displayed on the automatic driving information screen.

Further, when the candidate determination unit 1061 determines the scheduled action candidate, the remaining time information associated with the planned action candidate in the statistical information is further passed to the image generation unit 1060. When the image generation unit 1060 generates the scheduled action candidate image representing the scheduled action candidate, the image generation unit 1060 further generates a second remaining time image representing the remaining time indicated by the remaining time information. The image output unit 1051 further outputs the second remaining time image to the notification device 1002 in association with the scheduled action candidate image, so that the planned action candidate image including the second remaining time image is displayed on the automatic driving information screen. ..

FIG. 59 shows an example of the automatic driving information screen. On the automatic driving information screen 1103 of the figure, one scheduled action image 1106 representing one scheduled action and one scheduled action candidate image 1112 representing one scheduled action candidate are displayed. When a plurality of scheduled actions are determined, a plurality of scheduled action images 1106 may be displayed, and when a plurality of scheduled action candidates are determined, a plurality of scheduled action candidate images 1112 may be displayed. Further, the first remaining time image 1108a is arranged at a position near the scheduled action image 1106, and the second remaining time image 1108b is arranged at a position near the planned action candidate image 1112, all of which depend on the display modes of the plurality of time indicators 1109. Notify the length of the remaining time. The scheduled action and the planned action candidate shown in FIG. 59 are both action plans that combine a plurality of single actions, but may be a single action.

On the automatic driving information screen 1103, the display mode of the scheduled action image 1106 is set to be different from the display mode of the scheduled action candidate image 1112. For example, the pattern, color, size, etc. may be different between the planned action image 1106 and the planned action candidate image 1112. This prevents the driver from confusing the planned action planned in the automatic driving controller with the planned action candidate proposed as an action to replace the planned action. In FIG. 59, the label "scheduled action" is added to the scheduled action image 1106, and the label "recommended action" is added to the scheduled action candidate image 1112. A shaded area is further added to the planned action candidate image 1112.

In order to make the display mode different between the scheduled action image 1106 and the scheduled action candidate image 1112, the image generation unit 1060 may set a symbol or decoration different from the scheduled action image 1106 in the scheduled action candidate image 1112. Further, the image output unit 1051 may further output display control data to the notification device 1002, which specifies that the display mode of the scheduled action image 1106 and the display mode of the scheduled action candidate image 1112 are different.

Further, on the automatic driving information screen 1103, the driver can even select a specific action from one or more scheduled actions (scheduled action image 1106) and one or more scheduled action candidates (scheduled action candidate image 1112). The selection frame 1116 of is displayed. The driver inputs to the input device 1004 an operation of selecting a desired scheduled action or scheduled action candidate by the selection frame 1116.

The process when the scheduled action or the scheduled action candidate is selected is the same as that in the seventh embodiment. That is, the determination unit 1062 determines whether or not the selection action can be executed immediately. The image generation unit 1060 generates an inquiry image (for example, FIG. 55) for causing the driver to specify "execution" or "reservation" of the selection action according to the determination result of the determination unit 1062. The instruction unit 1063 is for causing the driver to execute the selection action at the timing corresponding to the specified "execution" or "reservation" when "execution" or "reservation" is specified during the inquiry image display. The control command is transmitted to the automatic operation control device 1030.

Since the processing sequence of the vehicle 1000 in the ninth embodiment is the same as the processing sequence of FIG. 46 described in the sixth embodiment, the description thereof will be omitted. However, the acquisition of the behavior information indicating the current behavior (P23, P31) and the generation and output of the current behavior image (P24, P32) are the acquisition of the behavior information indicating the scheduled behavior and the remaining time, the generation of the scheduled behavior image, and the generation of the scheduled behavior image, respectively. Replaces the output. Further, the generation and output of the current action candidate image (P26, P27, P34, P35) is replaced with the generation and output of the planned action candidate image.

FIG. 60 is a flowchart showing an example of processing of the driving support device 1040. Since the processing of S210 to S218 in the figure related to the generation and display of the scheduled action image is the same as the processing of S100, S106 to S110, and S112 to S114 of FIG. 41 described in the fifth embodiment, the description thereof will be omitted. .. When the detection information input unit 1052 acquires the detection information output from the detection unit 1020 (Y in S219), the candidate determination unit 1061 is based on the detection information and the statistical information accumulated in the statistical information storage unit 1070. Determine one or more planned action candidates. At that time, when the candidate determination unit 1061 extracts the same action as the scheduled action indicated by the action information from the statistical information, the candidate action unit 1061 excludes the action from the planned action candidates. That is, the candidate determination unit 1061 determines a scheduled action candidate different from the scheduled action (S220).

The image generation unit 1060 determines whether or not the scheduled action candidate determined in S220 matches the scheduled action candidate stored in the storage unit 1042 in advance. When the current action candidate determined in S220 does not match the planned action candidate stored in the storage unit 1042 in advance, that is, when the planned action candidate is updated (Y in S221), the image generation unit 1060 will perform the planned action candidate. A planned action candidate image representing the above is generated (S222). The image generation unit 1060 further identifies the remaining time until execution associated with the scheduled action candidate in advance in the statistical information, and further generates a remaining time image representing the remaining time in S222.

The image output unit 1051 outputs the scheduled action candidate image and the remaining time image to the notification device 1002 to display the automatic operation information screen (S223). The image generation unit 1060 stores information indicating the planned action candidate that generated the image in the storage unit 1042 (S224), and starts measuring the elapsed time from outputting (displaying) the planned action candidate image (S225). ). When the predetermined end condition is satisfied (Y in S229), the flow of this figure is ended, and when the end condition is not satisfied (N in S229), the process returns to S210.

When there is no input of detection information (N in S219) or the scheduled action candidate is not updated (N in S221), the image generation unit 1060 determines whether or not a predetermined time has elapsed from the start of measurement of the elapsed time. .. This predetermined time is a unit time for updating the remaining time image, and may be, for example, the time allocated to one time indicator 1109. When it is detected that a predetermined time has elapsed from the start of measurement of the elapsed time (Y in S226), the image generation unit 1060 updates the remaining time image (S227). The image output unit 1051 outputs the updated remaining time image to the notification device 1002 and displays it (S228). As a result, for example, one time indicator 1109 in FIG. 59 is switched from the lit state to the extinguished state. If the predetermined time has not elapsed from the start of measurement of the elapsed time (N in S226), S227 and S228 are skipped.

The processing of the driving support device 1040 (image generation unit 1060, determination unit 1062, instruction unit 1063, etc.) related to the selection of the scheduled action or the scheduled action candidate by the driver is the same as that of the seventh embodiment. For example, the process shown in the flowchart of FIG. 54 and the user interface shown in the automatic driving information screen 1103 of FIGS. 55 and 56 are applied to the ninth embodiment as they are. However, the selection target by the driver includes the scheduled action determined by the automatic driving control device 1030 in addition to the scheduled action candidate determined by the driving support device 1040.

As described above, the driving support device 1040 of the ninth embodiment notifies the occupants (drivers, etc.) of the vehicle of the scheduled action in the automatic driving, and the scheduled action that can be executed instead of the scheduled action. Suggest candidates. In this way, by presenting the driver with options for future actions of the vehicle, it is possible to realize automatic driving that further reflects the driver's intention and that is in line with the driver's taste and the like. In addition, the driver's anxiety about automatic driving can be suppressed. Further, as in the case of the seventh embodiment, even if the action cannot be executed at present, it is possible to reserve the action for the future, so that it becomes easier to realize the automatic driving according to the driver's taste and the like.

The modification described in the seventh embodiment can be applied to the ninth embodiment and has the same effect. For example, the statistical information stored in the statistical information storage unit 1070 may be information (driver model) that reflects the preferences or driving patterns of the vehicle occupants (typically the driver). The candidate determination unit 1061 may refer to the statistical information storage unit 1070 to determine a plurality of planned action candidates whose differences from the currently detected environmental parameter values are associated with the environmental parameter values within a predetermined range. .. At the same time, the priority of each of the plurality of planned action candidates may be determined. The image generation unit 1060 may generate a plurality of scheduled action candidate images corresponding to the plurality of scheduled action candidates determined by the candidate determination unit 1061, that is, an image representing the content of each candidate. Even if the image output unit 1051 outputs the scheduled action image and the plurality of scheduled action candidate images to the notification device 1002 so as to display the scheduled action image and the plurality of scheduled action candidate images within a fixed field of view of the driver of the vehicle 1000. Good. Further, the image output unit 1051 may display a plurality of scheduled action candidate images on the notification device 1002 in a mode according to the priority of each candidate.

Although not shown, another example of presenting a planned action (which can be said to be a driving control plan for the future) and a planned action candidate (which can be said to be a situation-adaptive recommendation for the future) will be described. Here, based on the fact that while traveling in the leftmost lane approaching the confluence, vehicles faster than the own vehicle are continuously approaching from behind the right lane, the automatic driving control device 1030 is currently driving. After the action, it is decided to execute the scheduled action "lane keeping", and the driving support device 1040 indicates that the scheduled action "lane keeping" is scheduled to be executed. At this time, the driving support device 1040 may determine that "if a merging vehicle appears before approaching the merging flow path, a sudden operation is required and the demerit becomes greater". Then, the driving support device 1040 instructs "change lane from the leftmost lane to the right lane" as a planned action candidate that can give a driving control instruction at the right timing before the "lane keeping" that the vehicle 1000 plans to execute after this. May be recommended and presented as an option that can be reserved.

(Embodiment 10)
First, an outline will be described. When the driver is made to select an action to be immediately executed by the vehicle (hereinafter referred to as "current action") during automatic driving of the vehicle, sufficient information is provided to the driver to support the action selection. However, it was sometimes difficult for the driver to smoothly select an action. In addition, the driver may feel uneasy.

Therefore, in the tenth embodiment, information adapted to the individual driver is provided as information for supporting the selection of the current behavior of the vehicle. Specifically, the driving support device 1040 determines the current action candidate from both the viewpoint based on the surrounding condition or the running state of the vehicle 1000 and the viewpoint based on the individual driver, and displays the current action candidate on the notification device 1002 in the vehicle 1000. .. This supports smooth action selection according to the driver's will, and also supports the driver to give instructions for action selection or action change with peace of mind.

In the following, the contents already explained in the previous embodiments will be omitted as appropriate. The configuration or operation described in this embodiment can be combined with or replaced with the configuration or operation described in other embodiments or modifications without departing from the spirit.

FIG. 61 is a block diagram showing a detailed configuration of the storage unit 1042 of the driving support device 1040. The determination standard holding unit 1071 holds the same determination criteria as in other embodiments. The statistical information storage unit 1070 includes a first statistical information storage unit 1072 that stores the first statistical information and a second statistical information storage unit 1073 that stores the second statistical information.

Both the first statistical information and the second statistical information are statistical information showing the relationship between the surrounding condition and the traveling state of the vehicle and the behavior of the vehicle, as in the conventional embodiments. Specifically, as in the statistical information of the sixth embodiment (FIG. 43), the values of a plurality of types of environmental parameters indicating the surrounding condition and the running state of the vehicle and the action of causing the vehicle to execute immediately (or immediately execute the vehicle). It is information including a plurality of records associated with the action results).

However, the first statistical information and the second statistical information have different statistical ranges, and specifically, the first statistical information has a wider statistical range than the second statistical information. The first statistical information records operation results and action results in various environmental conditions for a group of a plurality of people and a large number of vehicles. Of course, the history of operation results and action results in various environmental states may be modeled as operation patterns and action patterns by a known statistical method. The second statistical information records the operation record or the action record in the environmental state so far for the individual driver / vehicle 1000 alone. The operation record of the individual driver and the action record history of the vehicle 1000 alone may be modeled as an operation pattern and an action pattern by a known statistical method.

For example, the first statistical information may be one in which operation history in a large group, in other words, behavior history of a plurality of vehicles is sequentially recorded together with environmental parameter values. In addition, the average combination of environmental parameter values and behaviors in a large population may be recorded. The first statistical information can be said to be information showing a typical operation pattern, in other words, a typical behavior pattern of a vehicle, according to various surrounding environments or driving conditions. Further, since the first statistical information is based on the operation history in a large group and the behavior history of a large number of vehicles, the environmental parameter values and the behaviors are highly comprehensive.

On the other hand, the second statistical information may be an accumulation of the operation history of the individual driver, in other words, the action history of the vehicle 1000 alone. Further, the combination of the environmental parameter value and the action based on the individual operation of the driver may be sequentially recorded. It can be said that the second statistical information is statistical information that more strongly reflects the individual taste or operation pattern of the driver than the first statistical information. Further, since the second statistical information is the accumulation of the operation history of the individual driver and the action history of the vehicle 1000 alone, the comprehensiveness of the environmental parameter value and the action is low.

In the tenth embodiment, both the first statistical information and the second statistical information are stored locally in the vehicle 1000, but at least one of the first statistical information and the second statistical information is on a device outside the vehicle, for example, on the cloud. It may be stored in a database or the like. For example, the second statistical information may be sequentially accumulated locally in the vehicle 1000 because the range of statistics is the individual driver or the vehicle 1000 alone. On the other hand, since the range of statistics for the first statistical information covers a large group or a large number of vehicles, processing such as aggregation, statistics, and accumulation may be executed on a server on the cloud. The driving support device 1040 may access remote statistical information via the communication IF 1056 and the wireless device 1008.

The action information input unit 1054 of the driving support device 1040 acquires the action information indicating the current action to be executed by the automatic driving control device 1030 to the vehicle 1000 from the automatic driving control device 1030. The detection information input unit 1052 of the driving support device 1040 acquires the detection information indicating the detection result of the surrounding condition and the traveling state of the vehicle 1000 from the detection unit 1020.

FIG. 62 is a block diagram showing a detailed configuration of the control unit 1041 of the driving support device 1040. The control unit 1041 includes a first determination unit 1080, a second determination unit 1082, an image generation unit 1060, a determination unit 1062, and an instruction unit 1063.

The first determination unit 1080 is one or more that can be executed by the vehicle 1000 based on the detection information output from the detection unit 1020 and the first statistical information stored in the first statistical information storage unit 1072. Determine the first action. The first decision unit 1080 includes a situation-adaptive decision unit 1081.

The situation-adaptive determination unit 1081 corresponds to the candidate determination unit 1061 of the sixth embodiment. The situation-adaptive decision unit 1081 sets one or more action candidates (hereinafter referred to as "situation-adaptive current action candidates") that can be executed by the vehicle 1000 in place of the current action indicated by the action information as the first action. To determine as. Specifically, as in the sixth embodiment, among the actions defined in the first statistical information, the actions associated with the environmental parameter values that are close to the detection information are the situation adaptation current action candidates (the sixth embodiment). Corresponds to the current action candidate). Situation adaptation The current action candidate can be said to be a typical operation pattern / action pattern that is immediately executed in the current surrounding situation or running state.

If the situation-adaptive current action candidate extracted from the first statistical information includes the same candidate as the current action indicated by the action information, the situation-adaptive decision unit 1081 excludes the candidate from the subject to be presented to the driver. To do. In other words, the situation-adaptive determination unit 1081 determines, among the situation-adaptive current action candidates extracted from the first statistical information, a candidate different from the current action indicated by the action information as a presentation target to the driver. This prevents the driver from being presented with the same candidates as the current action.

Similar to the sixth embodiment, the determination unit 1062 refers to the detection information output from the detection unit 1020 and the determination standard of the determination standard holding unit 1071, and the situation adaptation current determined by the situation adaptation type determination unit 1081. Each of the action candidates determines whether it is possible for the vehicle to execute immediately. The situation-adaptive determination unit 1081 determines, among one or more situation-adaptive current action candidates extracted from the first statistical information, a candidate determined to be immediately executable by the determination unit 1062 as a presentation target to the driver.

The second determination unit 1082 is one or more that can be executed by the vehicle 1000 based on the detection information output from the detection unit 1020 and the second statistical information stored in the second statistical information storage unit 1073. Determine the second action. In the tenth embodiment, the second determination unit 1082 is the priority for each of one or more situation-adapted current action candidates, and the information indicating the priority according to the correlation between the second statistical information and the detected information is the first. 2 Determine as an action. In other words, the one or more second actions determined by the second determination unit 1082 indicate the priority of each of the one or more first actions.

The second determination unit 1082 includes a personal adaptive determination unit 1083 and a priority determination unit 1084. The personal adaptive determination unit 1083 corresponds to the candidate determination unit 1061 of the sixth embodiment. The personal adaptation type determination unit 1083 determines one or more actions (hereinafter referred to as "personal adaptation current action candidates") that can be executed by the vehicle 1000 in place of the current action indicated by the action information. Specifically, as in the sixth embodiment, among the actions defined in the second statistical information, the action associated with the environmental parameter value that is close to the detection information is the personal adaptation current action candidate (the sixth embodiment). Corresponds to the current action candidate). The individual adaptation current action candidate can be said to be an individual driver's operation pattern in the current surrounding conditions or driving conditions, and can be said to be an action pattern of the vehicle 1000 alone.

In addition, if the individual adaptation type determination unit 1083 has the same candidate as the current action indicated by the action information among the individual adaptation current action candidates extracted from the second statistical information, the candidate is excluded from the target of ranking described later. To do. In other words, the personal adaptation type determination unit 1083 determines, among the personal adaptation current action candidates extracted from the second statistical information, a candidate different from the current action indicated by the behavior information as a ranking target.

The determination unit 1062 determines whether or not each of the individual adaptation current action candidates determined by the individual adaptation type determination unit 1083 can be immediately executed by referring to the detection information and the determination criteria in the same manner as the situation adaptation current action candidate. You may. The personal adaptation type determination unit 1083 may narrow down the candidates judged to be immediately feasible from among one or more personal adaptation current action candidates extracted from the second statistical information to be ranked, and cannot be immediately executed. Candidates may be excluded from current action candidates for personal adaptation.

The personal adaptation type determination unit 1083 ranks one or more personal adaptation current action candidates. The personal adaptation type determination unit 1083 may rank higher as the personal adaptation current action candidate associated with the environmental parameter value close to the environmental parameter value indicated by the latest detection information. For example, in an n-dimensional vector space corresponding to n environmental parameters, the behavior associated with the environmental parameter value within a predetermined range from the position of the environmental parameter value (current environment position) indicated by the latest detection information is personally adapted. It may be extracted as an action candidate at present. Then, for each of the extracted candidates, the candidate whose position in the vector space is closer to the current environment position may be ranked higher.

The priority determination unit 1084 is one or more determined by the situation-adaptive determination unit 1081 as a driver presentation target based on the ranking of one or more individual adaptation current action candidates determined by the personal adaptation type determination unit 1083. Situation adaptation Determine the priority of current action candidates. For example, the rank of the individual adaptation current action candidate is given as a provisional ranking to the situation adaptation current action candidate showing the same behavior as the individual adaptation current action candidate. Then, according to the tentative rank given to each of the one or more situation adaptation current action candidates, the higher the tentative rank, the higher the priority on the screen display, in other words, the higher the priority of the proposal / recommendation to the driver. Set. In addition, the priority of the situation adaptation current action candidate for which there is no individual adaptation current action candidate showing the same behavior, that is, the situation adaptation current action candidate for which a provisional ranking cannot be given is the lowest.

The image generation unit 1060 generates a first image representing one or more first actions, and generates a second image representing one or more second actions. Specifically, the image generation unit 1060 generates a current action candidate image representing each of one or more situation-adapted current action candidates as the first image. Further, the image generation unit 1060 generates a priority image representing the priority set by the priority determination unit 1084 for each of the one or more situation adaptation current action candidates as the second image. The image generation unit 1060 may generate a priority image in which the priority assigned to each of the one or more situation-adapted current action candidates is represented by a histogram or a number. The histogram may be an image of a graphic object whose display size is set according to the priority.

The image output unit 1051 outputs the current action candidate image and the priority image to the notification device 1002 so as to display the current action candidate image and the priority image within a certain field of view of the driver of the vehicle. The notification device 1002 displays an automatic driving information screen including a current action candidate image and a priority image.

FIG. 63 shows an example of the automatic driving information screen. In the automatic driving information screen 1103 of FIG. 63A, the priority order of each situation adaptation current action candidate is shown numerically. In FIG. 63 (a), the outer circle becomes the action candidate display area 1128, and four current action candidate images 1110 representing the four situation-adapted current action candidates are displayed. Further, in FIG. 63A, the inner circle becomes the priority display area 1130, and four priority images 1132 showing the priority of the four situation-adapted current action candidates are displayed. In FIG. 63 (a), a priority image 1132 showing the highest priority "1" is given to the current action candidate image 1110 showing a lane change to the right, and the lane change to the right is an individual driver. Shows that this is the most recommended current action for.

In the automatic driving information screen 1103 of FIG. 63 (b), the priority of each situation adaptation current action candidate is shown by a histogram. In FIG. 63 (b), four current action candidate images 1110 representing four situation-adapted current action candidates are displayed in the peripheral portion of the circle. Further, in FIG. 63 (b), four priority images 1132 showing the priority of the four situation-adapted current action candidates are displayed, and the priority image 1132 having a larger size as the situation-adapted current action candidate having a higher priority is displayed. It has been added. In FIG. 63 (b), the maximum size priority image 1132 showing the highest priority is given to the current action candidate image 1110 showing the lane change to the right, and the lane change to the right is an individual driver. Shows that this is the most recommended current action for.

While the automatic driving information screen 1103 of FIGS. 63 (a) and 63 (b) is being displayed, the driver presses the cross button provided on the input device 1004 to instruct the execution of the current action candidate represented by the current action candidate image 1110. You may. For example, the driver may instruct the execution of the deceleration indicated by the current action candidate image 1110 by selecting the lower button on the cross button while the current action candidate image 1110 showing the downward triangle is displayed. The processing of the indicator unit 1063 of the driving support device 1040 is the same as that of the sixth embodiment.

FIG. 64 is a sequence diagram showing an example of processing related to HMI control of the vehicle 1000. P41 to P44 in the figure are the same as P21 to P23 and P25 in the sequence diagram of FIG. 46 described in the sixth embodiment. Although not shown in FIG. 64, as shown in P24 of FIG. 46, the driving support device 1040 may further display the current behavior image on the notification device 1002 based on the behavior information acquired from the automatic driving control device 1030. ..

The driving support device 1040 determines one or more situation-adapted current action candidates according to the correlation between the detection information and the first statistical information, and each situation-adapted current action according to the correlation between the detection information and the second statistical information. The priority of the candidate is determined (S45). The driving support device 1040 generates a current action candidate image showing one or more situation-adapted current action candidates and a priority image showing the priority of each candidate, and outputs and displays them to the notification device 1002 (S46). Subsequent processing of P47 to P49 is the same as P28 to P30 of the sequence diagram of FIG. 46 described in the sixth embodiment.

FIG. 65 is a flowchart showing an example of processing of the driving support device 1040. When the action information input unit 1054 acquires the action information output from the automatic operation control device 1030 (Y in S240), the control unit 1041 determines the current action indicated by the action information and the current action stored in the storage unit 1042 in advance. Determine if they match. When there is a discrepancy, that is, when the current action is updated (Y in S241), the control unit 1041 stores the current action indicated by the action information in the storage unit 1042 (S242). If the action information has not been acquired (N in S240), S241 and S242 are skipped, and if the current action has not been updated (N in S241), S242 is skipped.

When the detection information input unit 1052 acquires the detection information output from the detection unit 1020 (Y in S243), the situation-adaptive determination unit 1081 performs one or more situation-adaptive current actions based on the detection information and the first statistical information. Candidates are determined (S244). The situation-adaptive determination unit 1081 excludes one or more situation-adaptive current action candidates once determined that match the current action stored in the storage unit 1042 from the candidates (S245). The personal adaptation type determination unit 1083 determines one or more personal adaptation current action candidates based on the detection information and the second statistical information, and determines the ranking of each candidate. The situation-adaptive determination unit 1081 may also exclude one or more individual adaptation current action candidates once determined that match the current action stored in the storage unit 1042 from the candidates. The priority determination unit 1084 determines the priority on the screen display of one or more situational adaptation current action candidates based on the ranking of one or more individual adaptation current action candidates (S246). The priority determination unit 1084 stores information indicating the situation adaptation current action candidate and the priority in the storage unit 1042.

When the situation adaptation current action candidate is updated (Y in S247), the image generation unit 1060 generates a current action candidate image representing the updated situation adaptation current action candidate (S248). The image output unit 1051 outputs the current action candidate image to the notification device 1002 and displays it (S249). The image generation unit 1060 generates a priority image representing the priority of each of the one or more situation adaptation current action candidates (S250), and the image output unit 1051 outputs the priority image to the notification device 1002 and displays it. (S251). Situation adaptation If the action candidate is not updated (N in S247), but the priority is updated (Y in S252), proceed to S250, and if the priority is not updated (N in S252), go to S253. move on.

When the predetermined end condition is satisfied (Y in S253), the flow of this figure is ended, and when the end condition is not satisfied (N in S253), the process returns to S240. If the detection information has not been input (N in S243), S244 to S251 are skipped. As described above, the driving support device 1040 of the tenth embodiment determines the situation adaptation current action candidate each time the detection information is input, and determines the priority of the proposal according to the driver's preference. Then, when at least one of the situation adaptation current action candidate and the priority is updated, the display content of the automatic driving information screen 1103 is also updated.

The processing of the driving support device 1040 related to the selection of the current action candidate by the driver is the same as that of the sixth embodiment, and the processing flow is the same as the processing flow of FIG. 48. The length of the waiting time for accepting the selection of the current action candidate may be a predetermined fixed value. If no action selection has been input between the time when the current action candidate image 1110 is displayed and the waiting time elapses, the instruction unit 1063 of the driving support device 1040 has the highest priority current action candidate (situation adaptation current action candidate). ) May be transmitted from the command output unit 1055 to the automatic operation control device 1030.

As described above, the driving support device 1040 of the tenth embodiment gives a priority adapted to the individual driver or the vehicle 1000 to one or more situation adaptation current action candidates, and is given an automatic driving information screen 1103. To the driver. This allows the driver to be presented with useful information to assist in selecting the vehicle's current behavior. In the tenth embodiment, the current action candidates to be displayed on the automatic driving information screen 1103 are extracted from the first statistical information in which various environmental parameter values and various actions are comprehensively recorded, and the changes are made every moment. It becomes easier to present current action candidates that are more suitable for the vehicle's environmental parameter values. Further, by determining the priority of each candidate based on the second statistical information that strongly reflects the driver's preference, it is possible to present the priority according to the driver's individual preference or operation pattern.

A modified example will be described. In the tenth embodiment, the situation adaptation current action candidate determined by the situation adaptation type determination unit 1081 and the priority determined by the priority determination unit 1084 are displayed on the automatic driving information screen 1103. As a modification, even if both the situation-adapted current action candidate determined by the situation-adaptive decision unit 1081 and the individual-adaptive current action candidate determined by the individual-adaptive decision unit 1083 are displayed in parallel on the automatic driving information screen 1103. Good.

It is desirable that the situation-adaptive determination unit 1081 of this modification determines a situation-adaptive current action candidate different from the current action indicated by the action information acquired from the automatic driving control device 1030. Similarly, it is desirable that the personal adaptive determination unit 1083 also determines a personal adaptive current action candidate different from the current action indicated by the behavior information. This makes it possible to prevent the driver from being presented with the same candidate as the vehicle's current behavior.

In the automatic driving information screen 1103 of this modification, it is desirable that the display mode of the situation adaptation current action candidate and the display mode of the personal adaptation current action candidate are different. For example, the display position, pattern, color, size, and the like may be different so that the driver can easily distinguish between the situation-adapted current action candidate and the individual-adapted current action candidate. The image generation unit 1060 may generate an image of the personal adaptation current action candidate in a mode different from the aspect of the image of the situation adaptation current action candidate. When transmitting the image of the situation adaptation current action candidate and the image of the personal adaptation current action candidate to the notification device 1002, the image output unit 1051 further transmits display control data instructing to display both images in different modes. You may.

Further, the situation-adaptive determination unit 1081 of the present modification may determine the priority of one or more situation-adaptive current action candidates based on the correlation between the detection information and the first statistical information. The personal adaptation type determination unit 1083 may also determine the priority of one or more personal adaptation current action candidates based on the correlation between the detection information and the second statistical information as in the embodiment. The image generation unit 1060 and the image output unit 1051 include an image representing one or more situational adaptation current action candidates and an image showing the priority of each candidate, and an image representing one or more personal adaptation current action candidates and each candidate. An image showing the priority of the above may be displayed on the automatic operation information screen 1103. In addition, one or more situation-adapted current action candidates and one or more individual-adapted current action candidates may be displayed side by side in an easy-to-comparable manner for each priority.

Although not shown, another example of presenting a situation-adaptive current action candidate (which can be said to be a situation-adaptive recommendation for the present) and an individual-adaptive current action candidate (which can be said to be an individual-adaptive recommendation for the present) will be described. Here, while driving in the leftmost lane approaching the confluence, the automatic driving control device 1030 is currently acting based on the fact that vehicles faster than the own vehicle are continuously approaching from behind the right lane. It is determined that "lane keeping (arbitrary)" is executed, and the driving support device 1040 indicates that "lane keeping (arbitrary)" is being executed (for example, embodiments 5, 6 and the like). See).

At this time, the driving support device 1040 may determine that "if a merging vehicle appears before approaching the merging flow path, a sudden operation is required and the demerit becomes greater". Then, the driving support device 1040 may recommend and present "deceleration" as a situation adaptation current action candidate that can give a driving control instruction instead of the "lane keeping" executed by the vehicle 1000 as an option that can give an instruction immediately.

Further, the driving support device 1040 is executed by the vehicle 1000 in the "lane" executed by the vehicle 1000 "based on the tendency of the driving behavior taken by the driver when there is a vehicle approaching at a certain speed from behind the left lane in front of the confluence". Instead of "maintenance", "acceleration" may be determined as an individual adaptation current action candidate that can give driving control instructions. Then, the driving support device 1040 may further recommend and present the personal adaptation current action candidate "acceleration" as an option for which an instruction can be given immediately. In this way, the driving support device 1040 may present each of the situation-adapted current action candidate and the individual-adapted current action candidate determined at the approximate timing to the driver in parallel at the same time.

(Embodiment 11)
First, an outline will be described. When the driver is made to select an action to be executed at a future point in time during automatic driving of the vehicle, in other words, an action to be executed by the vehicle after a predetermined time (hereinafter referred to as "scheduled action"), the action selection is performed. In some cases, it was difficult for the driver to smoothly select an action because the information to support the driver was not sufficiently provided to the driver. In addition, the driver may feel uneasy.

Therefore, in the eleventh embodiment, information adapted to the individual driver is provided as information for supporting the selection of the planned action of the vehicle. Specifically, the driving support device 1040 determines a planned action candidate from both a viewpoint based on the surrounding condition or running state of the vehicle 1000 and a viewpoint based on the individual driver, and displays it on the notification device 1002 in the vehicle 1000. .. This supports smooth action selection according to the driver's will, and also supports the driver to give instructions for action selection or action change with peace of mind.

In the above embodiment 10, the candidate for the current action of the vehicle is presented to the driver, but in the eleventh embodiment, the candidate for the planned action of the vehicle is presented to the driver. In the following, the contents already explained in the previous embodiments will be omitted as appropriate. The configuration or operation described in this embodiment can be combined with or replaced with the configuration or operation described in other embodiments or modifications without departing from the spirit.

The storage unit 1042 of the driving support device 1040 has the configuration shown in FIG. 61 described in the tenth embodiment, and the control unit 1041 of the driving support device 1040 has the configuration shown in FIG. 62 described in the tenth embodiment.

Both the first statistical information stored in the first statistical information storage unit 1072 and the second statistical information stored in the second statistical information storage unit 1073 are related to the surrounding conditions and running conditions of the vehicle and the behavior of the vehicle. It is statistical information (FIG. 43) which shows sex. Specifically, as in the seventh embodiment, a record in which the values of a plurality of types of environmental parameters indicating the surrounding condition and the running state of the vehicle are associated with the action (or action record) to be executed by the vehicle at a future point in time is recorded. Information that includes multiple items. In other words, it is information accumulated by associating an action executed at a future time point (after a predetermined time) with respect to the current environmental state with a parameter value indicating the current environmental state. As described above, the action defined by the first statistical information and the second statistical information is different from the tenth embodiment in that the action is a scheduled action.

On the other hand, as in the tenth embodiment, the first statistical information and the second statistical information have different statistical ranges, and specifically, the first statistical information has a wider statistical range than the second statistical information. The first statistical information records operation results and action results in various environmental conditions for a group of a plurality of people and a large number of vehicles. Of course, the history of operation results and action results in various environmental states may be modeled as operation patterns and action patterns by a known statistical method. The second statistical information records the operation record or the action record in the environmental state so far for the individual driver / vehicle 1000 alone. The operation record of the individual driver and the action record history of the vehicle 1000 alone may be modeled as an operation pattern and an action pattern by a known statistical method.

In the eleventh embodiment, both the first statistical information and the second statistical information are stored locally in the vehicle 1000, but at least one of the first statistical information and the second statistical information is on a device outside the vehicle, for example, on the cloud. It may be stored in a database or the like. For example, the second statistical information may be sequentially accumulated locally in the vehicle 1000 because the range of statistics is the individual driver or the vehicle 1000 alone. On the other hand, since the range of statistics for the first statistical information covers a large group or a large number of vehicles, processing such as aggregation, statistics, and accumulation may be executed on a server on the cloud. The driving support device 1040 may access remote statistical information via the communication IF 1056 and the wireless device 1008.

The detection information input unit 1052 of the driving support device 1040 acquires the detection information indicating the detection result of the surrounding condition and the traveling state of the vehicle 1000 from the detection unit 1020. The first determination unit 1080 is one that can be an action scheduled to be executed by the vehicle 1000 based on the detection information output from the detection unit 1020 and the first statistical information stored in the first statistical information storage unit 1072. Determine the above first action.

The situation-adaptive decision-making unit 1081 of the first decision-making unit 1080 sets one or more action candidates (hereinafter, referred to as “situation-adapted action candidates”) that can be actions scheduled to be executed by the vehicle 1000 as the first action. decide. Specifically, as in the seventh embodiment, among the actions defined in the first statistical information, the actions associated with the environmental parameter values that are close to the detection information are the action candidates scheduled to be adapted to the situation (the seventh embodiment). Corresponds to the planned action candidates). The action candidate to be adapted to the situation can be said to be a typical operation pattern / action pattern to be executed at a future time with respect to the current surrounding situation or running state.

The second determination unit 1082 is one that can be an action scheduled to be executed by the vehicle 1000 based on the detection information output from the detection unit 1020 and the second statistical information accumulated in the second statistical information storage unit 1073. Determine the above second action. In the eleventh embodiment, the second determination unit 1082 is the priority for each of one or more situation adaptation scheduled action candidates, and the information indicating the priority according to the correlation between the second statistical information and the detected information is the first. 2 Determine as an action. In other words, the one or more second actions determined by the second determination unit 1082 indicate the priority of each of the one or more first actions.

The personal adaptation type determination unit 1083 of the second determination unit 1082 determines one or more action candidates (hereinafter, referred to as “personal adaptation scheduled action candidates”) that can be the actions scheduled to be executed by the vehicle 1000. Specifically, as in the seventh embodiment, among the actions defined in the second statistical information, the action associated with the environmental parameter value that is close to the detection information is the action candidate for personal adaptation (the seventh embodiment). Corresponds to the planned action candidates). The personal adaptation scheduled action candidate can be said to be the future operation pattern of the individual driver with respect to the current surrounding conditions or the driving state, and can be said to be the future action pattern of the vehicle 1000 alone.

Similar to the tenth embodiment, the personal adaptation type determination unit 1083 ranks one or more personal adaptation planned action candidates extracted from the second statistical information. The priority determination unit 1084 was determined by the situation-adaptive determination unit 1081 based on the order of one or more personal adaptation planned action candidates determined by the individual adaptive determination unit 1083, as in the tenth embodiment. Prioritize one or more prospective action candidates.

The image generation unit 1060 generates a first image representing one or more first actions, and generates a second image representing one or more second actions. Specifically, the image generation unit 1060 generates a planned action candidate image representing each of one or more situation-adapted planned action candidates as the first image. Further, the image generation unit 1060 generates a priority image representing the priority set by the priority determination unit 1084 for each of the one or more situation adaptation scheduled action candidates as the second image. The image generation unit 1060 may generate a priority image in which the priority degree given to each of one or more situation adaptation scheduled action candidates is represented by a histogram or a number. The histogram may be an image of a graphic object whose display size is set according to the priority.

The image output unit 1051 outputs the scheduled action candidate image and the priority image to the notification device 1002 so as to display the planned action candidate image and the priority image within a fixed field of view of the driver of the vehicle. The notification device 1002 displays an automatic driving information screen including a scheduled action candidate image and a priority image.

FIG. 66 shows an example of the automatic driving information screen. On the automatic driving information screen 1103 of the figure, a first scheduled action candidate image 1112a and a second scheduled action candidate image 1112b are displayed as scheduled action candidate images. Each of the planned action candidates (planned action candidates for situation adaptation) in the figure is an action plan that combines multiple single actions, but when a single action is determined as the current action candidate for situation adaptation, that single action The planned action candidate image showing the above is displayed.

In the figure, the priority of each planned action candidate is shown in a histogram. Specifically, the priority of the scheduled action candidate shown by the first scheduled action candidate image 1112a is shown by the first priority image 1132a (shaded), and the priority of the scheduled action candidate shown by the second scheduled action candidate image 1112b is shown. It is shown in the second priority image 1132b (shaded). In the figure, a priority image 1132 that is relatively large with respect to the first scheduled action candidate image 1112a is added. As a result, it is shown that the action shown by the first scheduled action candidate image 1112a is highly recommended to the individual driver. As shown in FIG. 63A, a priority image showing the priority of each scheduled action candidate may be displayed.

Since the processing sequence of the vehicle 1000 in the eleventh embodiment is the same as the processing sequence of FIG. 64 described in the tenth embodiment, the description thereof will be omitted. However, it is assumed that the input of the action information from the automatic driving control device 1030 shown on page 43 of FIG. 64 to the driving support device 1040 is not the eleventh embodiment, and will be described in a modified example described later. Further, the current action candidate and the current action candidate image shown in FIG. 64 are replaced with the planned action candidate (specifically, the situation adaptation planned action candidate and the individual adaptation planned action candidate) and the planned action candidate image, respectively.

FIG. 67 is a flowchart showing an example of processing of the driving support device 1040. When the detection information input unit 1052 acquires the detection information output from the detection unit 1020 (Y in S260), the situation-adaptive determination unit 1081 performs one or more situation-adaptation scheduled actions based on the detection information and the first statistical information. Candidates are determined (S261). The personal adaptation type determination unit 1083 determines one or more personal adaptation scheduled action candidates based on the detection information and the second statistical information, and determines the ranking of each candidate. The priority determination unit 1084 determines the priority of one or more situational adaptation planned action candidates based on the ranking of one or more individual adaptation planned action candidates (S262). The priority determination unit 1084 stores information indicating the situation adaptation scheduled action candidate and the priority in the storage unit 1042.

When the situation adaptation planned action candidate is updated (Y in S263), the image generation unit 1060 generates a planned action candidate image representing the updated situation adaptation planned action candidate (S264). The image output unit 1051 outputs a scheduled action candidate image to the notification device 1002 and displays it (S265). The image generation unit 1060 generates a priority image indicating the priority of each of one or more situation adaptation scheduled action candidates (S266), and the image output unit 1051 outputs the priority image to the notification device 1002 and displays it. (S267). If the action candidate to be adapted to the situation has not been updated (N in S263), but the priority has been updated (Y in S268), the process proceeds to S266, and if the priority has not been updated (N in S268), the procedure proceeds to S269. move on.

When the predetermined end condition is satisfied (Y in S269), the flow of this figure is ended, and when the end condition is not satisfied (N in S269), the process returns to S240. If the detection information has not been input (N in S260), S261 to S268 are skipped. As described above, the driving support device 1040 of the tenth embodiment determines the situation adaptation scheduled action candidate each time the detection information is input, and determines the priority of the proposal according to the driver's preference. Then, when at least one of the situation adaptation scheduled action candidate and the priority is updated, the display content of the automatic driving information screen 1103 is also updated.

The processing of the driving support device 1040 (image generation unit 1060, determination unit 1062, instruction unit 1063, etc.) related to the selection of the scheduled action candidate by the driver is the same as that of the seventh embodiment. For example, the process shown in the flowchart of FIG. 54 and the user interface shown in the automatic driving information screen 1103 of FIGS. 55 and 56 are applied to the eleventh embodiment as they are.

As described above, the driving support device 1040 of the eleventh embodiment gives a priority adapted to the individual driver or the vehicle 1000 to one or more situation adaptation scheduled action candidates, and is given an automatic driving information screen 1103. To the driver. This makes it possible to present the driver with useful information to assist in selecting the planned behavior of the vehicle. In the eleventh embodiment, the candidates for the planned actions to be displayed on the automatic driving information screen 1103 are extracted from the first statistical information in which various environmental parameter values and various actions are comprehensively recorded, and the changes are made every moment. It becomes easier to present a planned action candidate that is more suitable for the environmental parameter value of the vehicle. Further, by determining the priority of each candidate based on the second statistical information that strongly reflects the driver's preference, it is possible to present the priority according to the driver's individual preference or operation pattern.

Although not shown, another example of presenting a situation-adapted action candidate (which can be said to be a situation-adaptive recommendation for the future) and an individual-adaptive action candidate (which can be said to be an individual-adaptive recommendation for the future) will be described. Here, when turning right at an intersection of two lanes on each side, based on the fact that there is a vehicle approaching the oncoming lane, the autonomous driving controller 1030 decides to execute the current action "pause" and drives. It is assumed that the support device 1040 indicates that the "pause" is being executed (see, for example, embodiments 5, 6 and the like).

At this time, the driving support device 1040 may determine "the distance from the vehicle approaching from the front of the oncoming lane that can sufficiently secure the time required for the own vehicle to turn right". Then, the driving support device 1040 may recommend and present "turn right" as a situation adaptation scheduled action candidate that can give a driving control instruction at the right timing after the current action "pause" as an option that can reserve the instruction.

Furthermore, the driving support device 1040 gives a driving control instruction at the right timing after the current action "pause" based on "the tendency of the driving action taken by the driver when there is a vehicle approaching from the front of the opposite lane". As an action candidate to be personally adapted, "turn right for one lane at the timing → pause → turn right for one lane at the timing" (here, an action plan combining a plurality of single actions) may be determined. Then, the driving support device 1040 may further recommend and present the personal adaptation current action candidate as an option for which the instruction can be reserved. The tendency of the driving behavior taken by the driver is, for example, that the vehicle approaching from the front is decelerating because the front rear of the oncoming lane is blocked by a signal, and the vehicle approaching from the front behind the oncoming lane lights the left turn signal. In this case, if you can confirm your intention to turn left, such as decelerating a vehicle approaching from the front side of the oncoming lane or continuing the left turn signal, after interrupting by turning right in front of the vehicle approaching from the front side of the oncoming lane and pausing. It may be that there is a tendency to resume a right turn, and so on. In this way, the driving support device 1040 may present each of the situation adaptation scheduled action candidate and the individual adaptation scheduled action candidate determined at the approximate timing to the driver in parallel at the same time.

A modified example will be described. The action information input unit 1054 may acquire the action information indicating the scheduled action determined by the automatic driving control device 1030 from the automatic driving control device 1030. The image generation unit 1060 may further generate a scheduled action image showing the scheduled action. The image output unit 1051 may further output the scheduled action image to the notification device 1002 to simultaneously display the scheduled action image, the scheduled action candidate image, and the priority image within a certain field of view of the driver. In this case, in addition to the scheduled action candidate determined by the driving support device 1040, the scheduled action determined by the automatic driving control device 1030 may be selected by the driver, from the driving support device 1040 to the automatic driving control device 1030. It may be a candidate for the action to direct.

Further, in this modification, if the situation-adaptive decision unit 1081 has the same candidate as the planned action indicated by the action information among the situation-adapted planned action candidates extracted from the first statistical information, the situation-adaptive decision unit 1081 plans to adapt the candidate to the situation. It may be excluded from action candidates (for example, a target to be presented to the driver). In addition, if the individual adaptation type decision unit 1083 has the same candidate as the scheduled action indicated by the action information among the individual adaptation planned action candidates extracted from the second statistical information, the individual adaptation type action candidate (for example, ranking) is selected. It may be excluded from the target of attachment). As a result, it is possible to prevent the automatic driving control device 1030 from presenting the same candidate as the planned scheduled action to the driver.

As another modification, although not mentioned in the eleventh embodiment, as in the seventh or ninth embodiment, until the scheduled action specified in the statistical information (for example, the first statistical information) is executed. The remaining time of the above may be further displayed on the automatic operation information screen 1103. For example, a remaining time image showing the remaining time until the scheduled action candidate (for example, the situation adaptation current action candidate) indicated by the image is executed may be added to the scheduled action candidate image.

Next, a modification common to each embodiment will be described.
When the seat in the vehicle 1000 can be transformed into a forward-facing state during manual driving and a face-to-face state in which the front row and the rear row face each other during automatic driving, the driving support device 1040 is a seat sensor (not shown) that detects the seat state. When the sheets are in a face-to-face state based on the detection information, the notification method may be all voice. Further, the notification method may be switched from display to voice. Further, the driving support device 1040 may notify the current action by voice and notify the scheduled action by display. In other words, with respect to the current action, the current action candidate, the planned action, and the planned action candidate, the means (medium) for notifying some types of information may be different from the means (medium) for notifying other types of information. Good. Furthermore, the action information determined by the automatic driving control device 1030 may be notified by voice, and the action candidates determined by the driving support device 1040 may be notified on the screen display, or vice versa. By appropriately changing the notification method according to the state inside the vehicle 1000 including the driver, the occupant, etc., the receiving side is less likely to feel annoyed, and the certainty of information transmission can be improved.

Further, the driving support device 1040 notifies the driver by vibration that the notification device 1002 (here, a display device such as a head-up display) should be viewed (in automatic driving, the driver is always watching the notification device 1002). (Because it is not necessary), the explanatory voice by voice may be output from the speaker near the timing when the driver sees the display of the notification device 1002. Humans respond quickly to tactile (vibration) and hearing (sound) ≒ tactile (vibration to the eardrum), but slow to vision (display). On the other hand, it is difficult to understand the meaning of tactile sensation and single-note hearing. Hearing by voice conveys the meaning, but it takes time to convey the meaning. Vision can convey information that expresses meaning. The configuration of this modification utilizes a suitable combination of such characteristics of each sensation.

In addition, the situations to be notified may not be continuous but may overlap. For example, like the arrow display of a railroad crossing, "←" is displayed, and after waiting for a while, "→" is added, "←" disappears, but "→" remains, and both disappear, so you can start. It may be communicated to the driver and passengers by a combination of tactile, auditory, and visual senses. For example, after notifying by vibration that the notification device 1002 (here, a display device such as a head-up display) should be viewed, a voice explanation voice may be output near the timing when the driver sees the display of the notification device 1002. .. Further, before the explanation is completed, the display content of the notification device 1002 may be changed or added by notifying that the situation has changed with a predetermined notification sound.

Although the embodiments according to the present invention have been described in detail with reference to the drawings, the above-described functions of the apparatus or each processing unit can be realized by a computer program.

Computers that realize the above-mentioned functions programmatically include input devices such as keyboards or mice and touch pads, output devices such as displays or speakers, CPUs (Central Processing Units), ROMs (Read Only Memory), and RAMs (Random Access Memory). , Hard disk device or storage device such as SSD (Solid State Drive), reader device that reads information from recording medium such as DVD-ROM (Digital Versatile Disk Read Only Memory) or USB (Universal Serial Bus) memory, communication via network It is equipped with a network card, etc., and each part is connected by a bus.

Then, the reading device reads the program from the recording medium on which the program is recorded and stores the program in the storage device. Alternatively, the network card communicates with the server device connected to the network, and stores the program downloaded from the server device for realizing the function of each device in the storage device.

Then, the CPU copies the program stored in the storage device to the RAM, sequentially reads the instructions included in the program from the RAM, and executes the program, thereby realizing the functions of the respective devices.

The embodiment may be specified by the following items.
[Item 1]
An action information input unit that acquires behavior information indicating a first action to be executed by the vehicle from an automatic driving control unit that determines the behavior of the vehicle in the automatic driving of the vehicle.
A detection information input unit that acquires detection information indicating the detection result from the detection unit that detects the surrounding condition and the running state of the vehicle.
A candidate determination unit that determines a second action that can be executed separately from the first action indicated by the action information based on the detection information.
An image generation unit that generates a first image representing the first action indicated by the action information and generates a second image representing the second action.
An image output unit that outputs the first image and the second image to a display unit in the vehicle so as to display the first image and the second image within a fixed field of view of the driver of the vehicle.
A driving support device equipped with.
As a result, it is possible to present to the driver a candidate for an action to replace the current action of the vehicle determined by the automatic driving control unit, and it is possible to support the driver's decision as to whether or not to change the action of the vehicle. In addition, it is possible to prevent the driver from feeling anxious about automatic driving.
[Item 2]
It also has a storage unit that stores statistical information that shows the relationship between the vehicle's surroundings and driving conditions and the vehicle's behavior.
The driving support device according to item 1, wherein the candidate determination unit determines the second action based on the statistical information and the detection information.
This makes it easier for the autonomous driving control unit to determine an appropriate candidate for an action that replaces the current action of the vehicle.
[Item 3]
It is further equipped with a communication interface capable of communicating with a storage unit outside the vehicle that stores statistical information indicating the relationship between the vehicle's surroundings and driving conditions and the vehicle's behavior via a communication network.
The driving support device according to item 1, wherein the candidate determination unit accesses the statistical information of the storage unit via the communication interface and determines the second action based on the statistical information and the detection information.
This makes it easier for the autonomous driving control unit to determine an appropriate candidate for an action that replaces the current action of the vehicle.
[Item 4]
Any of items 1 to 3 further including a command output unit that outputs a command for causing the vehicle to execute the second action to the automatic driving control unit when a predetermined time elapses after outputting the second image. The driving support device described in item 1.
As a result, it is possible to instruct the automatic driving control unit to take an action instead of the current action of the vehicle determined by the automatic driving control unit.
[Item 5]
An operation signal input unit that receives an operation instruction that specifies an action of the vehicle to be executed during automatic driving of the vehicle, and an operation signal input unit.
If the operation instruction is not received within the predetermined time when the first image and the second image are displayed on the display unit of the vehicle, the vehicle is made to execute the first action represented by the first image. A command output unit that sends control commands to the automatic operation control unit, and
The driving support device according to any one of items 1 to 3, further comprising.
As a result, it is possible to instruct the automatic driving control unit to execute the determined vehicle action.
[Item 6]
An operation signal input unit that receives an operation instruction that specifies an action of the vehicle to be executed during automatic driving of the vehicle, and an operation signal input unit.
When the operation instruction for selecting the second image is received within the predetermined time when the first image and the second image are displayed on the display unit of the vehicle, the second action represented by the second image is performed. A command output unit that transmits a control command to be executed by the vehicle to the automatic driving control unit, and
The driving support device according to any one of items 1 to 3, further comprising.
As a result, it is possible to instruct the automatic driving control unit to take an action instead of the current action of the vehicle determined by the automatic driving control unit according to the judgment of the driver.
[Item 7]
After the command is transmitted to the automatic driving control unit, the action information input unit acquires any one of items 4 to 6 indicating the first action information updated in response to the command. The driving support device described in.
This makes it possible to present the driver with the latest information on autonomous driving.
[Item 8]
The detected information includes the speed of the vehicle, the relative speed of the preceding vehicle with respect to the vehicle, the distance between the own vehicle and the preceding vehicle, the relative speed of the vehicle in the side lane with respect to the own vehicle, and the relative speed between the own vehicle and the vehicle in the side lane. The driving support device according to any one of items 1 to 7, which includes distance and position information of the own vehicle.
This makes it easier for the autonomous driving control unit to determine an appropriate candidate for an action that replaces the current action of the vehicle.
[Item 9]
An automatic driving control unit that determines the behavior of the vehicle in the automatic driving of the vehicle,
A detection information input unit that acquires detection information indicating the detection result from the detection unit that detects the surrounding condition and the running state of the vehicle.
A candidate determination unit that determines a second action that is different from the first action that the automatic driving control unit causes the vehicle to execute and that can be executed by the vehicle based on the detection information.
An image generation unit that generates a first image representing the first action and generates a second image representing the second action.
An image output unit that outputs the first image and the second image to a display unit in the vehicle so as to display the first image and the second image within a fixed field of view of the driver of the vehicle.
An operation control device equipped with.
As a result, it is possible to present to the driver a candidate for an action that replaces the current action of the vehicle determined by the automatic driving control unit, and it is possible to support the driver's judgment as to whether or not the driver changes the action of the vehicle. In addition, it is possible to prevent the driver from feeling anxious about automatic driving.
[Item 10]
An automatic driving control unit that determines the behavior of the vehicle in the automatic driving of the vehicle,
A detection information input unit that acquires detection information indicating the detection result from a detection unit that detects the surrounding conditions and running conditions of the vehicle.
A candidate determination unit that determines a second action that is different from the first action that the automatic driving control unit causes the vehicle to execute and that can be executed by the vehicle based on the detection information.
An image generation unit that generates a first image representing the first action and generates a second image representing the second action.
An image output unit that outputs the first image and the second image to a display unit in the vehicle so as to display the first image and the second image within a fixed field of view of the driver of the vehicle.
Vehicles equipped with.
As a result, it is possible to present to the driver a candidate for an action that replaces the current action of the vehicle determined by the automatic driving control unit, and it is possible to support the driver's judgment as to whether or not the driver changes the action of the vehicle. In addition, it is possible to prevent the driver from feeling anxious about automatic driving.
[Item 11]
A step of acquiring behavior information indicating a first action to be executed by the vehicle from an automatic driving control unit that determines the behavior of the vehicle in the automatic driving of the vehicle.
A step of acquiring detection information indicating the detection result from the detection unit that detects the surrounding condition and the running state of the vehicle, and
A step of determining a second action that is different from the first action indicated by the action information and can be executed by the vehicle based on the detection information.
A step of generating a first image representing the first action indicated by the action information and generating a second image representing the second action,
A step of outputting the first image and the second image to a display unit in the vehicle so as to display the first image and the second image within a fixed field of view of the driver of the vehicle.
A driving assistance method characterized by a computer performing.
As a result, it is possible to present to the driver a candidate for an action that replaces the current action of the vehicle determined by the automatic driving control unit, and it is possible to support the driver's judgment as to whether or not the driver changes the action of the vehicle. In addition, it is possible to prevent the driver from feeling anxious about automatic driving.
[Item 12]
A function of acquiring behavior information indicating a first action to be executed by the vehicle from an automatic driving control unit that determines the behavior of the vehicle in the automatic driving of the vehicle.
A function to acquire detection information indicating the detection result from the detection unit that detects the surrounding condition and the running state of the vehicle, and
A function of determining a second action, which is different from the first action indicated by the action information and can be executed by the vehicle, based on the detection information.
A function of generating a first image representing the first action indicated by the action information and generating a second image representing the second action, and
A function of outputting the first image and the second image to a display unit in the vehicle so as to display the first image and the second image within a fixed field of view of the driver of the vehicle.
A driving support program to realize the above on a computer.
As a result, it is possible to present to the driver a candidate for an action that replaces the current action of the vehicle determined by the automatic driving control unit, and it is possible to support the driver's judgment as to whether or not the driver changes the action of the vehicle. In addition, it is possible to prevent the driver from feeling anxious about automatic driving.

1000 vehicle, 1002 display device, 1020 detection unit, 1030 automatic driving control device, 1040 driving support device, 1051 image output unit, 1052 detection information input unit, 1054 action information input unit, 1055 command output unit, 1060 image generation unit, 1061 Candidate decision unit, 1080 1st decision section, 1082 2nd decision section.

Claims (13)

The information related to the detection information of the surrounding condition of the vehicle used for determining the action that the vehicle can perform from among at least one type of action, and the reason why the action is determined is the vehicle. and information acquisition unit it acquires environment information is information for indicating the the occupant,
An image output unit for outputting in association with action image before showing the Kigyo movement and the environmental information on the display unit in the vehicle,
If the previous Kigyo dynamic is instructed by the user, and a command output unit for outputting a command to be executed before the Kigyo dynamic to the vehicle,
A driving support device equipped with. The environmental information is information indicating the driving environment of the vehicle determined based on the detection result of the driving state of the vehicle and the surrounding condition of the vehicle, and is information for showing the reason to the occupant. The driving support device according to claim 1. While the action image is displayed on the display unit, before if Kigyo dynamic is instructed, the command output unit outputs the command, the driving support apparatus according to claim 1 or 2. The driving support device according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the image output unit outputs an image of the own vehicle representing the vehicle to the display unit together with the action image. Any of claims 1 to 4 , wherein the image output unit outputs a preceding vehicle image representing a preceding vehicle traveling in front of the vehicle in the lane in which the vehicle is traveling together with the action image to the display unit. The driving support device described in item 1. The image output unit outputs a preceding vehicle image representing a preceding vehicle traveling in front of the vehicle in the lane in which the vehicle is traveling to the display unit together with the own vehicle image and the action image.
The driving support device according to claim 4 , wherein when the action indicated by the action image is selected while the action image is displayed on the display unit, the command output unit outputs the command. The driving support device according to any one of claims 1 to 6 , wherein the action indicated by the action image is selected based on the user's operation on the operation unit provided on the steering wheel of the vehicle. When there is a junction in front of the vehicle in the lane in which the vehicle is traveling, acceleration, deceleration, or lane change to the side lane of the lane is based on the detection information as an action indicated by the action image. The driving support device according to any one of claims 1 to 7, which is determined. When it is determined that the speed of the preceding vehicle traveling in front of the vehicle is slow in the lane in which the vehicle is traveling based on a predetermined standard, the vehicle overtakes the preceding vehicle and changes lanes to the side lane of the lane. The driving support device according to any one of claims 1 to 8 , wherein the traveling following the preceding vehicle is determined based on the detection information as the action indicated by the action image. An automatic driving control unit that determines the actions that the vehicle can perform in the automatic driving of the vehicle,
The information related to the detection information of the surrounding condition of the vehicle used for determining the action that the vehicle can perform from among at least one type of action, and the reason why the action is determined is described above. and information acquisition unit it acquires environment information is information for indicating to the occupant of the vehicle,
An image output unit for outputting in association with action image before showing the Kigyo movement and the environmental information on the display unit in the vehicle,
If the previous Kigyo dynamic is instructed by the user, and a command output unit for outputting a command to be executed before the Kigyo dynamic to the vehicle,
An operation control device equipped with. An automatic driving control unit that determines the actions that the vehicle can perform in the automatic driving of the vehicle,
The information related to the detection information of the surrounding situation of the vehicle used for determining the action that the vehicle can perform from at least one type of action, and the reason why the action is determined is the book. and information acquisition unit it acquires environment information is information for indicating to the occupant of the vehicle,
An image output unit for outputting in association with the action image before showing the Kigyo dynamic and the environmental information on the display unit in the vehicle,
If the previous Kigyo dynamic is instructed by the user, and a command output unit for outputting a command to perform pre Kigyo movement,
Vehicles equipped with. The information related to the detection information of the surrounding condition of the vehicle used for determining the action that the vehicle can perform from among at least one type of action, and the reason why the action is determined is the vehicle. Steps to acquire environmental information, which is information to be shown to the occupants of
And outputting to the display unit in the vehicle in association with action image before showing the Kigyo movement and the environmental information,
If the previous Kigyo dynamic is instructed by the user, and outputting a command to be executed before the Kigyo dynamic to the vehicle,
Driving support methods including. The information related to the detection information of the surrounding condition of the vehicle used for determining the action that the vehicle can perform from among at least one type of action, and the reason why the action is determined is the vehicle. A function to acquire environmental information, which is information to be shown to the occupants of
A function of outputting to the display unit in the vehicle in association with action image before showing the Kigyo movement and the environmental information,
If the previous Kigyo dynamic is instructed by the user, a function of outputting a command to be executed before the Kigyo dynamic to the vehicle,
A driving support program to realize the above on a computer.

Images